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SKETCHES 



THE LIFE AJ^D CHARACTER 



OP 



PATRICK HENRY. 



BY WILLIAM WIRT 

OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



* In quo hoc maximum est, quod neque ante ilium, quern ille Imltarateur neque post ilium qui 
eum imitari poosset. inventus est." Paterc. lih. i. cap. v. 

' His distinguishing characteristic is this, that he, teas preceded by none tehom he imitatedt 
nor did any come after loho could imitate him." 



REVISED EDITION, 

WITH HEADINGS TO EACH CHAPTER, AND SUCH AN ARRANGEMENT 

OF THE NOTES CONTAINED IN THE FORMER EDITIONS, 

AS TO RENDER THE WORK SUITABLE FOR 

A CLASS BOOK IN ACADEMIES 

AND SCHOOLS. 



ITHACA, N. Y. : 
PUBLISHED BY ANDRUS, GAUNTLETT, & CO., 

No. 69 OWEGO STREET. 



1850. 






District op Prnn^ylvania, to wit: 

Be it Re7u-in/>eied, That, on the twenty-first (ky of March, in the forty-aecond year oJ 
the Independence of ihr United States of America, James Webster, of the said District, 
hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, 
in the words following, to wit: "Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry. 
By William Wirt, of Richmond, Virginia. Second edition, corrected by the Author. In 
quo hoc maximum est, quod neque ante ilium, quern ille imitaretur, neque post ilium, qui 
eum unitari pos.'iet, mventus est. Paterc. Lib. i. cap. v." In conformity to the act of 
Congress of the Uniteil Siates, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by 
securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such 
copies, during the time therein mentioned ;" and also to an act, entitled, "An act supj)!e-, 
mentary to an act, entitled, 'An act for the encouragement of karning, by securing the 
copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during 
the time therein mentioned,' and extending the benetits thereof to the arts of designing 
engraving, and etching, historical and other Prints." D. Caldwell, 

Cler/c of the District of Pennsyivaida. 

Re-entered, according to the act of Congress, in the year 1839, by Thomas M'Elrath, in 
the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. 



; 



vo 
THE YOUNG MEN OF VIRGINIA. 

THIS WORK 

4 

IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 

BY 
THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE 



The leader has a right to know what degree of credit is due to the following 
narrative ; and it i-s the object of this preface to give him that satisfaction. 

It was in the summer of eighteen hundred and five, that the design of writing 
this biograpliy was first conceived. It was produced hy an incident of feeling, 
which, however it affected the author at the time, might now be thought light 
and trivial by the reader ; and he shall not, therefore, be detained by the recital 
of it. The author knew nothing of Mr. Henry, personally. He had never 
seen him, and was of course compelled to rely wholly on the information of 
others. As soon, therefore, as the design was formed of writing his life, 
aware of the necessity of losing no time in collecting, from the few remaining 
coevals of Mr. Henry, that personal knowledge of the subject which might ere 
long be expected to die with them, the author despatched letters to every 
quarter of the state in which it occurred to him as probable that interesting 
matter might be found ; and he was gratified by the prompt attention which 
was paid to his inquiries. 

There were, at that time, living in the county of Hanover, three gentlemen 
of the first respectability, who had been the companions of Mr. Henry's child- 
hood and youth ; these were, Col. Charles Dabney, Capt. George Dabney, 
and Col. William 0. Winston ; the two first of whom are still living. Not 
having the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with these gentlemen, the 
author interested the late Mr. Nathaniel Pope in his object, and, by his instru- 
mentality, procured all the useful information which was in their possession. 
Mr. Pope is well known to have been a gentleman of uncommonly vigorous 
and discriminating mind ; a sacred observer of truth, and a man of the purest 
sense of honour. The author cannot recall the memory of this most amiable 
and excellent man, to whom (if there be any merit in this work) the friends 
of Mr. Henry and the state of Virginia owe so many obligations, without 
paying to that revered memory the tribute of his respect and affection. Mr. 
Pope was one of those ardent young Virginians, who embarked before they 
had attained their maturity, in the cause of the American revolution : he joined 
an animated and active corps of horse, and signalized himself by an impetuous 
gallantry, which drew upon him the eyes and the applause of his commander, 
In peace, he was as mild as he had been brave in war ; his bos»m was replete 
A3 



n rKEFACE. 

with the kindest affections ; he was irf truth, one of the best of companions, 
and one of the warmest of friends. The fact that he was the acknowledged 
head of the several bars at which he practised in the country, may assure the 
reader of his capacity for the commission which he so cheerfully undertook, in 
regard to Mr. Henry ; and the unblemished integrity of his life may assure 
him also of the fidelity with which that comtnission was executed. So many 
important anecdotes in the following work depend on the credit of this gentle- 
man as a witness, that the slight sketch which has been given of his character, 
will not, it is hoped, be thought foreign to the purpose of this preface. Mr. 
Pope did not confine his inquiries to the county of Hanover: he was indefati- 
gable in collecting information from every quarter ; which he never accepted, 
however, but from the purest sources ; and his authority for every incident 
was given with the most scrupulous accuracy. The author had hoped to have 
had it in his power to gratify this gentleman, by submitting to his view the 
joint result of their labours, and obtaining the benefit of his last corrections ; 
but he was disappointed by his untimely and melancholy death. He fell a 
victim to that savage practice, which, under the false name of honour, con- 
tinued to prevail too long ; and his death is believed to have been highly 
instrumental in hastening that system of legislation in restraint of this practice, 
which now exists in Virginia. 

Besides the contributions furnished by Mr. Pope, the writer derived material 
aid from various other quarters. The widow of Mr. Henry was still living, 
and had intermarried vvith Judge Winston ; from this gentleman (who was 
also related to Mr. H-ir.ry by blood, and had been intimately acquainted with 
him through the far greater part of his life,) the author received a succinct, 
but extremely accurate and comprehensive memoir. 

Col. Meredith, of Amherst, was a few years older than Mr. Henry, had 
been raised in the same neighbourhood, and had finally married one of his 
sisters. Having known Mr. Henry from his birth to his death, he had it in 
his power to supply very copious details, which were taken down from his 
narration by the present Judge Cabell, and forwarded to the author. 

One of the most intimate and confidential friends of Mr. Henry was the 
late Judge Tyler. The judge had a kind of Roman frankness, and even 
bluntness, in his manners, together with a decision of character and a benevo- 
lence of spirit, which had attached Mr. Henry to him, from his first appear- 
ance on the public stage. They were, for a long time, members of the House 
of Delegates together, and their friendship continued until it was severed by 
death. From Judge Tyler the author received a very minute and interesting 
communication of incidents, the whole of which had either passed in his own 
presence, or had been related to him by Mr. Henry himself. 

The writer is indebted to Judge Tucker for two or three of his best inci- 
dents ; one of them will probably be pronounced the most interesting passage 
of the work. He owes to the same gentleman, too, the fullest and liveliest 
description of the person of Mr. Henry, which has been furnished from anv 



PREFACE. Vii 

quarter ; and he stands further indebted to him for a rare and (to the purpose 
of this work) a very important book — the Journals of the House of Burgesses 
for the years seventeen hundred and sixty-three, four, five, six, and seven. 

From Judge Roane the author has received one of the fairest and most 
satisfactory communications that has been made to him ; and the vigour and 
elegance with which that gentleman writes, has frequently enabled the author 
to relieve the dulness of his own narrative, by extracts from his statements. 

Mr. Jefferson, too, has exercised his well-known kindness and capdour on 
this occasion ; having not only favoured the author with a very fall communi- 
cation in the fi.rst instance ; but assisted him, subsequently and repeatedly, 
with his able counsel, in reconciling apparent contradictions, and clearing 
away difficulties of fact. 

Besides these statements, drawn from the memory of his correspondents, 
the writer was favoured, by the late Governor Page, with the reading of a 
pretty extended sketch, which he had himself prepared, of the life of Mr. 
Henry; and he has, furthermore, availed himself of the kind permission ot 
Mr. Peyton Randolph, to examine an extremely valuable manuscript history ol 
Virginia, written by his father, the late Mr. Edmund Randolph ; which em 
braces the whole period of Mr. Henry's public life. 

In addition to these stores of information the author has had the good 
fortune to procure complete files of the public newspapers, reaching from the 
year seventeen hundred and sixty-five down to the close of the American 
revolution ; by these he has been enabled to correct, in some important 
instances, the memory of his correspondents, in relation not only to dates, but 
to facts themselves. 

He has been fortunate, too, in having procured several original letters, 
which shed much light on important and hitherto disputed facts, in the life of 
Mr. Henry. 

The records of the General Court, and the archives of the state, having 
been convenient to the author, and always open to him, he has endeavoured 
assiduously and carefully to avail himself of that certain and permanent 
evidence which they afford ; and has been enabled, by this means, as the 
reader will discover, to correct some strange mistakes in historical facts. 

The author's correspondents will find, that be has departed, in some in- 
stances, from their respective statements ; and he owes them an explanation 
for having done so : the explanation is this — their statements were, in several 
instances, diametrically opposed to each other ; and were sometimes all con- 
tradicted by the public prints, or the records of the state. It ought not to be 
matter of surprise, that these contradictions should exist, even among those 
most respectable gentlemen, relying, as they did, upon human memory mere- 
ly ; and speaking of events so very remote, without a previous opportunity of 
communicating with each other. It will be seen by them, that the author has 
been obliged in several instances, to contradict even the several histories of 
the times, concerning which he writes ; but this he has never done, without 



yUl PREFACE. 

the most decisive proofs of his own corfectness, which he has always cited ; 
nor has he ever departed from the narratives of his several correspondents, 
except under the direction of preponderating evidence. As among those 
contradictory statements, all could not be true, he has sought the correction 
by public documnets, when such correction was attainable ; and when it was 
not, he has selected, among his narrators, those whose opportunities to know 
the fact in question seemed to be the best. This he has done, without the 
slightest .intention to throw a shadow of suspicion on the credit of any gentle- 
man who has been so obliging as to answer his inquiries ; but merely from the 
necessity which he was under, either of making some selection, or abandoning 
the work altogether ; and because he knew of no better rule of selection, than 
that which he has adopted. 

Although it has been so long since the collection of these materials was 
begun, it was not until the summer of eighteen hundred and fourteen that the 
last communication was received. Even then, when the author sat down to 
the task of imbodying his materials, there were so many intricacies to disen- 
tangle, and so many inconsistencies, from time to time, to explain and settle, 
and that, too, through the tedious agency of cross-mails, that his progress was 
continually impeded, and has been, to him, most painfully retarded. 

Other causes, too, have contributed to delay the publication. The author 
is a practising lawyer ; and the courts which he attends, keep him perpetually 
and exclusively occupied in that attendance, through ten months of the year ; 
nor does the summer recess of two months afford a remission from professional 
labour. In Virginia, the duties of attorney, counsellor, conveyancer, and 
advocate, are all performed by the same individual ; hence, the summer vaca 
tion, instead of being a time of leisure, is not only the season of preparation 
for the approaching courts, but is subject, moreover, to a perpetual recurrence 
of what are here called offi,ce duties, which renders a steady application to any 
other subject impossible. 

These sketches are now submitted to the public, with unaffected diffidence ; 
not of the facts which they detail, for on them the author has the firmest 
reliance ; but of the manner in which he has been able to accomplish his 
undertaking. For, (to say nothing of his inexperience and want of ability for 
such a work) he has been compelled to write (when he was suffered to write 
at all) amidst that incessant professional annoyance which has been mentioned, 
and which is known by every man who has ever made the trial, to forbid the 
hope of success in any composition of this extent. Conld the writer have 
looked forward, with any reasonable calculation, to a period of greater ease, 
his respect for the memory of Mr. Henry, as well as his regard for himself, 
would have induced him to suspend this undertaking until that period should 
have arrived. But having no ground for any hope of this kind, he has thought 
h better to hazard even these crude sketches, than to suffer the materials, 
which he had accumulated with so much toil, and for an object which he 
thought so laudable, to perish on his hands. 



PREFACE. IX 

These remarks are not maJe with the view of deprecating the censures of 
critics by profession ; but merely to bespeak the candour of that larger portion 
of readers, who are willing to be pleased with the best eflbrts that can be 
reasonably expected from the circumstances of the case. The author, however, 
is well satisfied that the most indulgent reader (although benevolently disposed 
to overlook defects of execution) will be certainly disappointed in the matter 
itself of this work ; for, notwithstanding all his exertions, he is entirely con- 
scious that the materials, which he has been able to collect are scanty and 
meager, and utterly disproportionate to the great fame of Mr. Henry. It is 
probable, that much of what was once known of him had perished, before the 
author commenced his researches ; and, it is very possible, that much may 
still be known, which he has not been able to discover ; because it lies ir 
unsuspected sources, or with persons unwilling, for some reason or other, to 
communicate their information. It is the conviction, that he has not been 
able to inform himself of the whole events of Mr. Henry's life, and that his 
collection can be considered only as so many detached sketches. If, in this 
humble and unassuming character, it shall give any pleasure to the numerous 
admirers of Mr. Henry, in Virginia, the author will have attained all that he 
has a right to expect. 

Richmond, Va. Sept. 5th, 1817. 



NOTE A, 

It appears by the journals of the house of burgesses, of the 14th November, 
seventeen hundred and sixty-four, (page 38,) that a committee was appointed 
to draw up the following address, memorial, and remonstrance ; which com- 
mittee was composed of the following persons, to wit : Mr. Attorney, (Peyton 
Randolph,) Mr. Richard Henry Lee, Mr. Landon Carter, Mr. Wythe, Mr. 
Edmund Pendleton, Mr. Benjamin Harrison Mr. Gary, and Mr. Fleming, t« 
whom, afterward, Mr. Bland was added. The address to the king is from the 
pen of the attorney.* 

* On the authority of Mr. JefTerson. 
" To the king^s most excellent Majesty. 
" Most Gracious Sovereign, 

" We, your majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the council and burgesser 
of yonr ancient colony and dominion of Virginia, now met in general assembly, 
beg leave to assure your majesty of our firm and inviolable attachment to yous 
sacred person and government ; and as your faithful subjects here have at all 
tmies been zealous to demonstrate this truth, by a ready compliance with the 
royal requisition during the late war, by which a heavy and oppressive debt 
of near half a million had been incurred, so at this time they implore permis- 
sion to approach the throne with humble confidence, and to entreat that yo\ir 
majesty will be graciously pleased to ptotect our people of this colony in the 
enjoyment of their ancient and inestimable right of being governed by such 
laws, respecting their internal polity and taxation, as are derived from their 
own consen(, with the approbation of their sovereign or his substitute : a right 
which, as men, and descendants of Britons, they have ever quietly possessed, 
since, first by royal permission and encouragement, they left the mother king- 
dom to extend its commerce and dominion. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The appearance of a duodecimo edition of Marshall's Life of "Wash- 
ington, suggested to the proprietors of The Life of Patrick Henry^ the 
desirableness and utility of the present edition. As that masterly 
sketch of the heroic deeds and character of the Father of his country, 
furnishes to the youth of our land the most impressive lessons of pa- 
triotism and manly energy, so it was presumed that this graphic de- 
lineation of the genius of the '■^forest-born Demosthenes" was admira- 
bly calculated to elicit in the youthful mind, feelings of emulation 
which time might develop into action and honourable usefuLuess. It 
was not, however, alone for youth, or for the use of the School Libra 
ries of our several states, that this work has assumed its present form — 
it was equally designed for those who would have purchased the 
former edition, had it been less expensive, who will find under a less 
commanding appearance, the same as is contained in the octavo edi- 
tion — the only alteration being in a more convenient Brriogement of 
some of the notes. 



* 



WIRT'S 
LIFE OF PATRICK HENRY. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth of Patrick Henry — Family Reminiscences — Early Propensities — Js 
placed under the Care of a Merchant — Engages in Business with his Broth- 
er — Becomes bankrupt — Is married — Commences farming — ^Abandons Agri- 
culture and recommences mercantile Business — Is again unfortunate — 
Becomes acquainted with Mr. Jefferson — Determines to study Law — Is 
licensed — Contest on the Subject of the Tobacco Law — Mr. Henry retained 
as Counsel — Success of his first Effort. 

Patrick Henry, the second son of John and Sarah Henry, 
and one of nine children, was born on the twenty-ninth of 
May, seventeen hundred and thirty-six, at the family-seat, called 
Studley, in the county of Hanover and colony of Virginia. In 
his early childhood, his parents removed to another seat, in the 
same county, then called Mount Brilliant, now the Retreat ; at 
which latter place Patrick Henry was raised and educated. His 
parents, though not rich, were in easy circumstances ; and, in 
point of personal character, were among the most respectable 
inhabitants of the colony. 

His father, Col. John Henry, was a native of Aberdeen in 
Scotland. He was, it is said, a first cousin to David Henry, 
who was the brother-in-law and successor of Edward Cave, in 
the publication of that celebrated work, " The Gentleman's 
Magazine," and himself the author of several literary tracts : 
John Henry is also said to have been a nephew, in the mater- 
nal line, to the great historian Dr. William Robertson. He 
came over to Virginia, in quest of fortune, some time prior to 
the year seventeen hundred and thirty, and the tradition is, that 
he enjoyed the friendship and patronage of Mr. Dinwiddle, af- 
terward the governor of the colony. By this gentleman, it is 
reported, that he was introduced to the elder Col. Syme of 
Hanover, in whose family, it is certain, that he became domes- 
ticated during the life of that gentleman ; after whose death he 
intermarried with his widow, and resided on the estate which 
he had left. 
11 



12 wirt's life of 

It is considered as a fair prooT of the personal merit of Mr. 
John Henry, that, in those days, when offices were bestowed 
with peculiar caution, he was the colonel of his regiment, the 
principal surveyor of the county, and, for many years, the 
presiding magistrate of the county court. His surviving ac- 
quaintances concur in stating, that he was a man of liberal 
education ; that he possessed a plain, yet solid understanding ; 
and lived long a life of the most irreproachable integrity and 
exemplary piety. 

His brother Patrick, a clergyman of the church of England, 
followed him to this country some years afterward ; and be- 
came, by his influence, the minister of St. Paul's parish in 
Hanover, the functions of which office he sustained throughout 
life with great respectability. Both the brothers were zealous 
members of the established church, and warmly attached to the 
reigning family. Col. John Henry was conspicuously so. 
*' There are those yet alive," says a correspondent, (Mr. Pope, 
in eighteen hundred and five,) " who have seen him at the head 
of his regiment, celebrating the birth-day, of George HI. with 
as much enthusiasm as his son Patrick afterward displayed in 
resisting the encroachments of that monarch."* 

Mrs. Henry, the widow of Col. Syme, as we have seen, and 
the mother of Patrick Henry, was a native of Hanover county, 
and of the family of Winstons. She possessed, in an eminent 
degree, the mild and benevolent disposition, the undeviating 
probity, the correct understanding, and easy elocution, by which 
that ancient family has been so long distinguished. Her brother 
William, the father of the present Judge Winston, is said to 
have been highly endowed with that peculiar cast of eloquence, 
for which Mr. Henry became, afterward, so justly celebrated. 
Of this gentleman, I have an anecdote from a correspondent, 
(Mr. Pope,) which I shall give in his own words : — 

" I have often heard my father, who was intimately acquaint- 
ed with this William Winston, say, that he was the greatest 
orator whom he ever heard, Patrick Henry excepted ; that 
during the last French and Indian war, and soon after Brad- 
dock's defeat, when the militia were marched to the frontiers 
of Virginia, against the enemy, this William Winston was the 
lieutenant of a company ; that the men, who were indifferently 
clothed, without tents, and exposed to the rigour and inclem- 
ency of the weather, discovered great aversion to the service, 
and were anxious and even clamorous to return to their families ; 

* Mr. Burk's account of Mr. Henry is extremely careless and full of errors. 
He begins by making him the son of his uncle : — '* Patrick Henry, the son of 
a Scotch gentleman of the same name,^^ &c. — 3d vol. of the History of Vir- 
ginia, page 300, 



PATRICK HENRY. 13 

when this William Winston, mounting a stump, (the common 
rosiruin, you know, of tjie field-orator of Virginia,) addressed 
them with such keenness of invective, and declaimed with such 
force of eloquence, on liberty and patriotism, that when he 
concluded, the general cry was, ' Let us march on ; lead us 
against the enemy !' and they were now willing, nay, anxious 
to encounter all those difficulties and dangers which, but a few 
moments before, had almost produced a mutiny. 

Thus much I have been able to collect of the parentage and 
family of Mr. Henry ; and this, I presume, will be thought quite 
sufficient, in relation to a man, who owed no part of his great- 
ness to the lustre of his pedigree, but was, in truth, the soul 
founder of his own fortunes. 

Until ten years of age, Patrick Henry was sent to a school in 
the neighbourhood, where he learned to read and write, and 
made some small progress in arithmetic. He was then taken 
home, and under the direction of his father, who had opened a 
grammar-school in h||B own house, he acquired a superficial 
knowledge of the Latin language, and learned to read the char- 
acter, but never to translate Greek. At the same time, he made 
a considerable proficiency in the mathematics, the only branch 
of education for which, it seems, he discovered in his youth, 
the slightest predilection. 

But he was too idle to gain any solid advantage from the 
opportunities which were thrown in his way. He was passion- 
ately addicted to the sports of the field, and could not support 
the confinement and toil which education required. Hence, 
instead of system, or any semblance of regularity in his studies, 
his eflTorts were always desultory, and became more and more 
rare ; until at length, when the hour of his school exercises 
arrived, Patrick was scarcely ever to be found. He was in the 
forest with his gun, or over the brook with his angle-rod ; and, 
in these frivolous occupations, when not controlled by the 
authority of his father, (which was rarely exerted,) he would, it 
is said, spend whole days and weeks, with an appetite rather 
whetted than cloyed by enjoyment. His school-fellows, having 
observed his growing passion for these amusements, and having 
remarked that its progress was not checked either by the want 
of companions or the want of success, have frequently watched 
his movements to discover, if they could, the secret source of 
that delight which they seemed to afibrd him. But they made 
no discovery which led them to any other conclusion than (to 
use their own expression) that " he loved idleness for its own 
sake." They have frequently observed him lying along, under 
the shade of som« tree that overhung the sequestered stream, 
watching, for hours, at the same spot, the motionless cork of 

2 



14 



WJlRT S LIFE OF 



his fishing line, without one encouraging symptom of success, 
and without any apparent source of enjoyment, unless he could 
find it in the ease of his posture, or in the illusions of hope, or, 
which is most probable, in the stillness of the scene and the 
silent workings of his own imagination. 

This love of solitude, in his youth, was often observed. 
Even when hunting with a party, his choice was not to join the 
noisy band that drove the deer ; he preferred to take his stand, 
alone, where he might wait for the passing game, and indulge 
himself, meanwhile, in the luxury of thinking. Not that he 
was averse to society ; on the contrary, he had, at times, a 
very high zest for it. But even in society, his enjoyments 
while young, were of a very peculiar cast ; he did not mix in 
the wild mirth of his equals in age ; but sat, quiet and demure, 
taking no part in the conversation, giving no responsive smile 
to the circulatingjest, but lost, to all appearance, in silence and 
abstraction. This abstraction, however, was only apparent ; 
for on the dispersion of a company, whwk interrogated by his 
parents as to what had been passing, he was able, not only to 
detail the conversation, but to sketch, with strict fidelity, the 
character of every speaker. None of these early delineations 
of character are retained by his contemporaries ; and, indeed, 
they are said to have been more remarkable for their justness, 
than for any peculiar felicity of execution. 

I cannot learn that he gave, in his youth, any evidence of that 
precocity which sometimes distinguishes uncommon genius. 
His companions, recollect no instance of premature wit, no 
striking sentiment, no flash of fancy, no remarkable beauty or 
strength of expression ; and no indication, however slight, 
either of that impassioned love of liberty, or of that adventur- 
ous daring and intrepidity, which marked so strongly, his fu- 
ture character. So far was he, indeed, from exhibiting any one 
prognostic of this greatness, that every omen foretold a life, at 
best, of mediocrity, if not of insignificance. 

His person is represented as having been coarse, his man- 
ners uncommonly awkward, his dress slovenly, his conversa 
tion very plain, his aversion to study invincible, and his facul 
ties almost entirely benumbed by indolence. No persuasions 
could bring him either to read. or to work. On the contrary, 
he ran wild in the forest, like one of the aborigines of the 
country, and divided his life between the dissipation and uproar . 
of the chase and the languor of inaction. 

His propensity to observe and comment upon the human 
character was, so far as I can learn, the only circumstance 
which distinguished him, advantageously, from his youthful 
companions. This propensity seems to have been born with 



PATRICK HENRY. 15 

him, and to have exerted itself, instinctively, the moment that 
a new subject was presented to his view. Its actio^i was in- 
cessant, and it became, at length almost the only intellectual 
exercise in which he seemed to take delight. To this cause 
may be traced that consummate knowledge of the human heart 
w^hich he finally attained, and which enabled him, when he 
came upon the public stage, to touch the springs of passion 
with a master-hand, and to control the resolutions and decis- 
ions of his hearers, with a power, almost more than mortal. 

From what has been already stated, it will be seen how little 
education had to do with the formation of this great man's 
mind. He was, indeed, a mere child of nature, and nature 
seems to have been too proud and too jealous of her work, to 
permit it to be touched by the hand of art. She gave him 
Shakspeare's genius, and bid him, like Shakspeare, to depend 
on that alone. 

Let not the youthful reader, however, deduce, from the ex- 
ample of Mr. Henry, an argument in favour of indolence and 
the contempt of study. Let him remember that the powers 
which surmounted the disadvantage of those early habits, 
were such as very rarely appear upon this earth. Let him re- 
member, too, how long the genius, even of Mr. Henry, was 
kept down and hidden from the public view, by the sorcery of 
those pernicious habits ; through what years of poverty and 
wretchedness they doomed him to struggle ; and, let him re 
member, that, at length, when in the zenith of his glory, Mr. 
Henry himself had frequent occasion to deplore the conse- 
quences of his early neglect of literature, and to bewail " the 
ghosts of his departed hours." 

His father, unable to sustain, with convenience, the expense 
of so large a family as was now multiplying on his hands, 
found it necessary to qualify his sons, at a very early age, to 
support themselves. With this view, Patrick was placed at the 
age of fifteen, behind the counter of a merchant in the country. 
How he conducted himself in this situation, I have not been 
able to learn. There could not, however, I presume, have 
been any flagrant impropriety in his conduct, since, in the next 
year, his father considered him qualified to carry on business 
on his own account. Under this impression, he purchased a 
small adventure of goods for his two sons, William and Pat- 
rick, and, according^ to the language of the country, " set them 
up in trade." William's habits of idleness were, if possible, 
still more unfortunate than Patrick's. The chief management 
of their concerns, devolved, therefore, on the younger brother, 
and that management seems to have been most wretched. 

Left to himself, all the indolence of his character returned. 



16 wirt's life of 

Those unfortunate habits which he had formed, and whose 
spell was already too strong to be broken, comported very 
poorly with that close attention, that accuracy and persevering 
vigour, which are essential to, the merchant. The drudgery of 
retailing and of book-keeping soon became intolerable ; yet he 
was obliged to preserve appearances by remaining continually 
at his stand. Besides these unpropitious habits, there was 
still another obstacle to his success, in the natural kindness 
of his temper. " He could not find it in his heart" to disap- 
point any one who came to him for credit; and he was very 
easily satisfied by apologies for non-payment. He condemned, 
in himself, this facility of temper, and foresaw the embarrass- 
ments with which it threatened him ; but he was unable to over- 
come it. Even with the best prospects, the confinement of 
such a business would have been scarcely supportable ; but 
with those which now threatened him, his store became a pris- 
on. To make the matter still worse, the joys of the chase, 
joys now to him forbidden, echoed around him every morning, 
and by their contrast, and the longings which they excited, 
contributed to deepen the disgust which he had taken to hi»» 
employments. 

From these painful reflections, and the gloomy forebodings 
which darkened the future, he sought, at first, a refuge in mu- 
sic, for which it seems he had a natural taste, and he learned to 
play well on the violin and on the flute. From music he passed 
to books, and, having procured a few light and elegant authors, 
acquired, for the first time, a relish for reading. 

He found another relief, too, in the frequent opportunities 
now aflbrded him of pursuing his favourite study of the human 
character. The character of every customer underwent this 
scrutiny ; and that, not with reference either to the integrity 
or solvency of the individual, in which one would suppose that 
Mr. Henry would feel himself most interested ; but in relation 
to the structure of his mind, the general cast of his opinions, 
the motives and principles which influenced his actions, and 
what may be called the philosophy of character. 

In pursuing these investigations, he is said to have resorted 
to arts, apparently so far above his years, and which looked so 
much like an afterthought, resulting from his future eminence, 
that I should hesitate to make the statement, were it not attested 
by so many, witnesses, and by some who cannot be suspected 
of the capacity for having fabricated the fact. Their account 
of it, then, is this : — that whenever a company of his customers 
met in the store, (which frequently happened on the last day of 
the week,) and were themselves sufiiciently gay and animated 
40 talk and act as nature prompted, without concealment, with- 



PATRICK HENRY. 17 

out reserve, he would take no part in their discussions, hut 
listen with a silence as deep and attentive as if under the influ- 
ence of some potent charm. If, on the contrary, they were 
dull and silent, he would, without betraying his drift, task him- 
self to set them in motion, and excite them to remark, collision, 
and exclamation. He was peculiarly delighted with comparing 
their characters, and ascertaining how they would severally act 
in given situations. With this view he would state a hypo- 
thetic case, and call for their opinions one by one, as to the 
conduct which would be proper in it. If they difiered, he would 
demand their reasons, and enjoy highly the debates in which 
he would thus involve them. But multiplying and varying 
those imaginary cases at pleasure, he ascertained the general 
course of human opinion, and formed, for himself, as it were, a 
graduated scale of the motives and conduct which are natural to 
man. Sometimes he would entertain them with stories, gathered 
from his reading, or, as was more frequently the case, drawn 
from his own fancy, composed of heterogeneous circumstances, 
calculated to excite, by turns, pity, terror, resentment, indigna- 
tion, contempt; pausing in the turns of his narrative, to ob- 
serve the effect; to watch the different modes in which the pas- 
sions expressed themselves, and learn the language of emotion 
from those children of nature. 

In these exercises, Mr. Henry could have had nothing in 
view beyond the present gratification of a natural propensity. 
The advantages of them, however, were far more permanent, 
and gave the brightest colours to his future life. For tliose 
continual efforts to render himself intelligible to his plain and 
unlettered hearers, on subjects entirely new to them, taught 
him that clear and simple style which forms the best vehicle 
of thought to a popular assembly ; while his attempts to in- 
terest and affect them, in order that he might hear from thera 
the echo of nature's voice, instructed him in those topics of 
persuasion by which men were the most certainly to be moved, 
and in the kind of imagery and structure of language, which 
were the best fitted to strike and agitate their hearts. These 
constituted his excellences as an orator ; and never was there 
a man, in any age, who possessed, in a more eminent degree, 
the lucid and nervous style of argument, the command of the 
most beautiful and striking imagery, or that language of pas- 
sion which burns from soul to soul. 

In the meantime, the business of the store was rushing 
headlong to its catastrophe. One year put an end to it. Wil- 
liam was then thrown loose upon society,* to which he was 

* I have seen an original letter from Col. John Henry to his son William, in 
which he remonstrates with him on his wild and dissipated course of life. 
« 2* 



13 wirt's life of 

never afterward usefully attached ; and Patrick was engaged 
for the two or three following years, in winding up this disas- 
trous experiment as well as he could. 

His misfortunes, however, seem not to have had the effect 
either of teaching him prudence or of chilling his affections. 
For, at the early age of eighteen, we find him married to a 
Miss Shelton, the daughter of an honest farmer in the neigh- 
bourhood, but in circumstances too poor to contribute effect- 
ually to her support. By the joint assistance of their parents, 
however, the young couple were settled on a small farm, and 
here, with* the assistance of one or two slaves, Mr. Henry had 
to delve the earth, with his own hands, for subsistence. Such 
are the vicissitudes of human life ! It is curious to contem- 
plate this giant genius, destined in a few years to guide the 
councils of a mighty nation, but unconscious of the intellectual 
treasures which he possessed, encumbered, at the early age of 
eighteen, with the cares of a family ; obscure, unknown, and 
almost unpitied ; digging, with wearied limbs and with an ach- 
ing heart, a small spot of barren earth, for bread, and blessing 
the hour of night which relieved him from toil. 

Little could the wealthy and great of the land, as they rolled 
along the highway in splendour, and beheld the young rustic at 
work in the coarse garb of a labourer, covered with dust and 
melting in the sun, have suspected that this was the man who was 
destined not only to humble their pride, but to make the prince 
himself tremble on his distant throne, and to shake the bright- 
est jewels from the British crown. Little, indeed, could he 
himself have suspected it; for amid the distresses which 
thickened around him at this time, and threatened him not only 
with obscurity but with famine, no hopes came to cheer the 
gloom, nor did there remain to him any earthly consolation, 
save that which he found in the bosom of his own family. 
Fortunately for him, there never was a heart which felt this 
consolation with greater force. No man ever possessed the 
domestic virtues in a higher degree, or enjoyed, more exquis- 
itely, those pure delights which flow from the endearing n-ela- 
tions of conjugal life. 

Mr. Henry's want of agricultural skill, and his unconquer- 
able aversion to every species of systematic labour, drove him, 
necessarily, after a trial of two years, to abandon this pursuit 

There is reason to believe, however, that at a later period, he may have re- 
formed, since a gentleman, to whom the manuscript of this work was submit- 
ted, notes on this passage, that when he was at college at Williamsburgh, he 
recollects to have seen William Henry a member of the assembly, from the 
county of Fluvanna ; that he was called colonel, and was, he afterward under- 
Btood, pretty we 'I provided as to fortune. 



PATRICK HENRY. 19 

altogether. His next step seems to have been dictated by ab- 
solute despair ; for, selling off his little possessions, at a sac- 
rilice for cash, he entered, a second time, on the inauspicious 
business of merchandise. Perhaps he flattered himself that 
he would be able to profit by his past experience, and conduct 
this experiment to a more successful issue. But if he did so, 
he deceived himself. lie soon found that he had not changed 
his character, by changing his pursuits. His early habits still 
continued to haunt him. The same Avant of method, the same 
facility of temper, soon became apparent by their ruinous ef- 
fects. He resumed his violin, his flute, his books, his curious 
inspection of human nature ; and not unfrequently ventured to 
shut up his store, and indulge him.self in the favourite sports 
of his youth. 

His reading, however, began to assume a more serious char- 
acter. He studied geography, in which it is said that he be- 
came an adept. He read, also, the charters and history of the 
colony. He became fond of historical works generally, par- 
ticularly those of Greece and Rome; and, from the tenacity of 
his memory and the strength of his judgment, soon made him- 
self a perfect master of their contents. Livy was his favour- 
ite ; and having produced a translation, he became so much en- 
amoured of the work, that he made it a standing rule to read it 
through, once at least, in every year, during the early part of 
his life.* The grandeur of the Roman character, so beautiful- 
ly exhibited by Livy, filled him with surprise and admiration ; 
and he was particularly enraptured with those vivid descrip- 
tions and eloquent harangues with which the work abounds. 
Fortune could scarcely have thrown in his way, a book better 
litted to foster his republican spirit, and awaken the still dor- 
mant powers of his genius ; and it seems not improbable, that 
the lofty strain in which he himself afterward both spoke and 
acted, was, if not originally inspired, at least highly raised, by 
the noble models set before him by this favourite author. 
' This second mercantile experiment was still more unfortu- 
nate than the first. In a few years it left him a bankrupt, and 
placed him in a situation than which it is difficult to conceive 
one more wretched. Every atom of his property was now 
gone, his friends were unable to assist him any further ; he had 
tried every means of support, of which he could suppose him- 
self capable, and every one had failed ; ruin was behind him; 
poverty, debt, want, and famine, before ; and, as if his cup of 
misery was not already full enough, here were a suffering wife 
t^nd '•hildren to make it overflow. 

- Judgre Tsiefson had this statement from Mr. Henry himself 



20 wirt's life of 

But with all his acuteness of feeling, Mr. Henry possessed 
great native firmness of character ; and, let me add, great re- 
liance, too, on that unseen arm which never long deserts the 
faithful. Thus supported, he was able to bear up under the 
heaviest pressure of misfortune, and even to be cheerful, under 
circumstances which would sink most other men into despair. 

It was at this period of his fortunes, that Mr. Jeflerson be- 
came acquainted with him; and the reader, I am persuaded, 
will be gratilied Avith that gentleman's own account of it. 
These are his words : — " My acquaintance with Mr. Henry 
commenced in the winter of seventeen hundred and lii'ty-nine — 
sixty. On my way to the college I passed the Christmas- 
holydays at Col. Dandridge's, in Hanover, to whom Mr. Henry 
was a near neighbour. During the festivity of the season, I 
met him in society every day, and we became well acquainted, 
although I was much his junior, being then in my seven- 
teentli year, and he a married man. 

"His manners had something of coarseness in them; his pas- 
sion was music, dancing, and pleasantry. He excelled in the last, 
and it attached every one to him. You ask some account of 
his mind and information at this period ; but you will recollect 
that we were almost continually engaged in the usual revelries 
of the season. The occasion, perhaps, as much as his idle dis- 
position, prevented his engaging in any conversation which 
might give the measure either of his mind or information. 
Opportunity was not, indeed, wholly Vv'anting ; because Mr. 
John Campbell was there, who had married Mrs. Spotswood, 
the sister of Col. Dandridge. He was a man of science, and 
often introduced conversation on scientific subjects. Mr. Hen- 
ry had, a little before, broken up his store, or rather it had 
broken him up ; but his misfortunes were not to be traced, 
either in his countenance or conduct." 

This cheerfulness of spirit, under a reverse of fortune so 
severe, is certainly a very striking proof of the manliness of 
his character. It is not, indeed, easy to conceive that a mind 
like Mr. Henry's could finally sink under any pressure of ad- 
versity. Such a mind, although it may not immediately per- 
ceive whither to direct its efforts, must always possess a con- ' 
sciousness of power sufficient to buoy it above despondency. 
But, be this as it may, of Mr. Henry it was certainly true, as 
Dr. Johnson has observed of Swift, that "he was not one of 
those who, having lost one part of life in idleness, are tempted 
to throw away the remainder in despair." 

It seems to be matter of surprise, that even yet. amid all 
those various struggles for subsistence, the powers of his mind 
had not so far developed themselves as to suggest to any friend 



PATRICK HENRY. 3] 

the pursuit for which he was formed. He seems to have been 
a plant of slow growth ; but, like other plants of that nature, 
formed for duration, and fitted to endure the buffetings of the 
rudest storm. 

It was now, when all other experiments had failed, that, as 
a last effort, he determined, of his own accord, to make a tria 
of the law. No one expected him to succeed in any eminent 
degree. His unfortunate habits were, by no means, suited to 
so laborious a profession : and even if it were not too late in 
life for him to hope to master its learning, the situation of his 
affairs forbade an extensive course of reading. In addition to 
these obstacles, the business of the profession, in that quarter, 
was already in hands from which it was not easily to be taken; 
for (to mention no others) Judge Lyons, the late president of 
the court of appeals, was then at the bar of Hanover, and the 
adjacent counties, with an unrivalled reputation for legal learn- 
ing ; and Mr. John Lewis, a man, also, of very respectable 
legal attainments, occupied the whole field of forensic eloquence. 

Mr. Henry himself seems to have hoped for nothing more 
from the profession than a scanty subsistence for himself and 
his family, and his preparation was suited to these humble ex- 
pectations ; for to the study of a profession, which is said to 
require the lucubrations of twenty years, Mr. Henry devoted 
not more than six weeks.* On this preparation, however, he 
obtained a license to practise the law. How he passed with 
two of the examiners, I have no intelligence ; but he himself 
used to relate his interview with the third. This was no other 
than Mr. John Randolph, who was afterward the king's attor- 
ney-general for the colony ; a gentleman of the most courtly 
elegance of person and manners, a polished wit, and a profound 
lawyer. 

At first, he was so much shocked by Mr. Henry's very un- 
gainly figure and address, that he refused to examine him : un- 
derstanding, however, that he had already obtained two signa- 
tures, he entered with manifest reluctance, on the business. A 
very short time was sufficient to satisfy him of the erroneous 
conclusion which he had drawn from the exterior of the can- 
didate. With evident marks of increasing surprise, (produced 
no doubt by the peculiar texture and strength of Mr. Henry's 
style, and the boldness and originality of his combinations,) he 
continued the examination for several hours : interrogating the 

* So say Mr. Jefferson and Judge Winston. Mr. Pope says nine month? 
Col. Meredith and- Capt. Dabney, six or eight months. Judge Tyler, one 
month ; and he adds ; " This I had from his own. lips. In this time, he read 
Coke upon Littleton, and the Virginia laws." 



23 wirt's life of 

candidate, not on the principles of municipal law, in which he, no 
doubt, soon discovered his deficiency, but on the laws of na- 
ture and of nations, on the policy of the feudal system, and 
on general history, which last he found to be his stronghold. 

During the very short portion of the examination which was 
devoted to the common law, Mr. Randolph dissented, or affect- 
ed to dissent from one of Mr. Henry's answers, and called 
upon him to assign the reasons of his opinion. This produced 
an argument ; and Mr. Randolph now played off on him the same 
arts which he himself had so often practised on his country 
customers ; drawing him out by questions, endeavouring to 
puzzle him by subtleties, assailing him with declamation, and 
watching continually the defensive operations of his mind. 
After a considerable discussion, he said : " You defend your 
opinions well, sir; but now to the law and to the testimony." 
Hereupon, he carried him to his office, and opening the au- 
thorities, said to him : " Behold the face of natural reason ; you 
have never seen these books, nor this principle of the law ; yet 
you are right, and I am wrong ; and from the lesson which 
you have given me (you must excuse me for saying it) I will 
never trust to appearances again. Mr. Henry, if your industry 
be only half equal to your genius, I augur that you will do 
well, and become an ornament and an honour to your profes- 
sion." It was always Mr. Henry's belief that Mr. Randolph 
had affected this difference of opinion, merely to afford him the 
pleasure of a triumph, and to make some atonement for the 
wound which his first repulse had inflicted. Be this as it may, 
the interview was followed by the most marked and permanent 
respect on the part of Mr. Randolph, and the most sincere 
good-will and gratitude on that of Mr. Henry.* 

It was at the age of four-and-twenty that Mr. Henry obtain- 

* This account of Mr. Henry's examination is given by Judge Tyler, who 
states it as having come from Mr. Henry himself. It was written before I had 
received the following statement from Mr. Jefferson ; and although there is 
some difference in the circumstances, it has not been thought important enough 
to make an alteration of the text necessary. This is Mr. Jefferson's state- 
ment : — " In the spring of seventeen hundred and sixty, he came to Williams- 
burgh to obtain a license as a lawyer, and he called on me at college. He told 
me he had been reading law only six weeks. Two of the examiners, however, 
Pevton and John Randolph, men of great facility of temper, signed his license 
with as much reluctance as their dispositions would permit them to show. Mr. 
Wythe absolutely refused. Robert C. Nicholas refused also at first ; but, on 
repeated importunities and promises of future reading, he sifrned. These 
facts I had afterward from the gentlemen themselves ; the two Randolphs ac- 
knowledging he was very ignorant of the law, but that they perceived him to 
be a young man of genius, and did not doubt that he would soon qualify him- 
self." 



PATRICK HENRY. 23 

ed his license. Of the science of law, he knew almost noth- 
ing : of the practical part he was so wholly ignorant, that he 
was not only unable to draw a declaration or a plea, but inca- 
pable, it is said, of the most common or simple business of his 
profession, even of the mode of ordering a suit, giving a no- 
tice, or making a motion in court. It is not at all wonderful, 
therefore, that such a novice, opposed as he was by veterans, 
covered with the whole armour of the law, should linger in the 
background for three years.* 

During this time, the wants and distresses of his family were 
extreme. The profits of his practice could not have supplied 
them even with the necessaries of life ; and he seems to have 
spent the greatest part of his time, both of his study of the law 
and the practice of the first two or three years, with his father- 
in-law, Mr. Shelton, who then kept the tavern at Hanover 
courthouse. Whenever Mr. Shelton was from home, Mr. 
Henry supplied his place in the tavern, received the guests, 
and attended to their entertainment. All this was very natural 
in Mr. Henry's situation, and seems to have been purely the 
voluntary movement of his naturally kind and obliging dispo- 
sition. 

Hence, however, a story has arisen, that in the early part of 
his life, he was a barkeeper by profession. The fact seems 
not to have been so : but if it had been, it would certainly have 
redounded much more to his honour than to his discredit ; for 
as Mr. Henry owed no part of his distinction either to birth or 
fortune, but wholly to himself, the deeper the obscurity and 
poverty from which he emerged, the stronger is the evidence 
which it bears to his powers, and the greater glory does it shed 
around him. 

About the time of Mr. Henry's coming to the bar, a contro- 
versy arose in Virginia, which gradually produced a very 
strong excitement, and called to it, at length, the attention ot 
the whole state. 

This was the famous controversy between the clergy on the 
one hand, and the legislature of the people of the colony on 
the other, touching the stipend claimed by the former ; and as 
this was the occasion on which Mr. Henry's genius first broke 
forth, those who take an interest in his life, will not be dis- 
pleased by a particular account of the nature and grounds of 
the dispute. It will be borne in mind, that the church of En- 
gland was at this period the established church of Virginia ; 



* ** Ke was not distinguished at tne bar for near four years." — Judge Win- 
fcion : yet Mr. Burke intiii m that he took the lead in his profession at once. 
Vol 3d, 301. 



24 WIRT*S LIFE OF 

and by an act of assembly, pa'ssed so far back as the year six- 
teen hundred and ninety-six, each minister of a parish had been 
provided with an annual stipend of sixteen thousand pounds of 
tobacco. This act was re-enacted, with amendments, in seven- 
teen hundred and forty-eight, and in this form had received the 
royal assent. The price of tobacco had long remained sta- 
tionary at two pence in the pound, or sixteen shillings and 
eight pence per hundred. According to the provisions of the 
law, the clergy had the right to demand, and were in the prac- 
tice of receiving, payment of their stipend in the specific to- 
bacco ; unless they chose, for convenience, to commute it for 
money at the market-price. 

In the year seventeen hundred and fifty-five, however, the 
crop of tobacco having fallen short, the legislature passed "an 
act to enable the inhabitants of this colony to discharge their 
tobacco-debts in money for the present year :" by the pro- 
visions of which, " all persons, from whom any tobacco was 
due, were authorized to pay the same either in tobacco or in 
money, after the rate of sixteen shillings and eight 'pence per 
hundred, at the option of the debtor.'''' This act was to con- 
tinue in force for ten months and no longer, and did not contain 
the usual clause of suspension, until it should receive the royal 
assent. 

Whether the scarcity of tobacco was so general and so no- 
torious, as to render this act a measure of obvious humanity 
and necessity, or whether the clergy were satisfied by its gen- 
erality, since it embraced sheriffs, clerks, attorneys, and all 
other tobacco-creditors, as well as themselves, or whether they 
acquiesced in it as a temporary expedient, which they supposed 
not likely to be repeated, it is certain, that no objection was 
made to the law at that time. They could not, indeed, have 
helped observing the benefits which the rich planters derived 
from the act ; for they were receiving from fifty to sixty shil- 
lings per hundred for their tobacco, while they paid off their 
debts, due in that article, at the old price of sixteen shillings 
and eight pence. Nothing, however, was then said in defence 
either of the royal prerogative or of the rights of the clergy, 
but the law was permitted to go peaceably through its ten 
months' operation. 

The great tobacco-planters had not forgotten the fruits of 
this act, when, in the year seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, 
upon a surmise that another short crop was likely to occur, 
the provisions of the act of seventeen hundred and fifty-five 
were re-enacted, and the new law, like the former, contained 
no suspending clause. The crop, as had been anticipated, did 
ioW shortj and the price of tobacco rose immediately from six- 



PATRICK HENRY. 25 

teen and eight pence to fifty shillings per hundred. The clergy 
now took the alarm, and the act was assailed by an indignant, 
sarcastic, and vigorons pamphlet, entitled, " The Two-Fenny 
Act," from the pen of the Reverend John Camm, the rector of 
York-Hampton parish, and the Episcopalian commissary for 
the colony.* 

He was answered b}- two pampiilets written, the one by Colo- 
nel Ricliard Bland, and the other by Colonel Landon Carter, in 
both which the commissary was very roughly handled. He re- 
plied, in a still severer pamphlet, under the ludicrous title of "The 
Colonels Dismounted." The colonels rejoined ; and this war 
of pamphlets, in which, with some sound argument, there was 
a great* deal of what Dryden has called " the horse-play of 
raillery," v*'as kept up, until the whole colony, which had at 
first looked on for amusement, kindled seriously in the con- 
test from motives of interest. Such was the excitement pro- 
duced by the discussion, and at length so strong the current 
against the clergy, that the printers found it expedient to shut 
their presses against them in this colony, and Mr. Camm had 
at last to resort to Maryland for publication. 

These pamphlets are still extant, and it seems impossible to 
deny, at this day, that the clergy had much the best of the 
argument. The king in his council took up the subject, de- 
nounced the act of seventeen hundred and fifty-eight as a usur- 
pation, and declared it utterly null and void. Thus supported, 
the clergy resolved to bring the question to a judicial test; and 
suits were accordingly brought by them, in the various county 
courts of the colony, to recover, their stipends in the specific 
tobacco. They selected the county of Hanover as the place of 
the first experiment; and this was made in a suit instituted by 
the Reverend James Maury,t against the collector of that 
county and his sureties. ♦ 

The record of this suit is now before me. The declaration 
is founded on the act of seventeen hundred and forty-eight, 
which gives the tobacco ; the defendants pleaded specially the 
act of seventeen hundred and fifty eight, which authorizes the 



* The governor of Virginia represented the king ; the council, the house o 
lords ; and the Episcopalian commissary (a member of the council) represent- 
ed the spiritual part of that house ; the house of burgesses was, of course 
the house of commons. 

t Mr. Burk (vol. 3d, page 303) makes the Rev. Patrick Henry the plainti^: 
in this cause ; in this he is corrected by the records of the county. Mr. Burk 
also sets down " The Two-Penny Act," to the speculations of a man by the 
name of Dickinson ; in this he is confuted by the act itself; the preamble ex- 
oressly founding it on the shortness of the crop. 

3 



26 wirt's life of 

commiitalioii into money, at 'sixteen antl eight pence; to this 
plea the phiintiff demurred, assigning lor causes of demurrer, 
iirst, that the act of seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, not hav- 
ing received the royal assent, had not the force of a law ; and, 
secondly, that the king, in council, had declared the act null 
and void. The case stood for argument on the demurrer to 
the November term, seventeen hundred and sixty-three, and 
was argued by Mr. Lyons for the plaintiff, and Mr. John Lewis 
for the defendants; when the court, very much to the credit ot 
their candour and tirmness, breasted the popular current by 
sustaining the demurrer. 

Thus far, the clergy sailed before the wind, and concluded, 
with good reason, that their triumph was complete : for the act 
of seventeen hundred and fifty-eight having been declared void 
by the judgment on the demurrer, that of seventeen hundred and 
forty-eight was left in full force, and became, in law, the only 
standard for the linding of the jury. Mr. Lewis was so thor- 
oughly convinced of this, that he retired from the cause ; inform- 
ing his clients that it had been, in efiect, decided against them, 
and that there remained nothing more for him to do. In this 
desperate situation, they applied to Patrick Henry, and he under- 
took to argue it for them before a jury, at the ensuing term. 

Accordingly, on the first day of the following December, he 
attended the court, and, on his arrival, found in the courtyard 
such a concourse as Avould have appalled any other man in his 
situation. They were not the people of the county merely who 
were there, but visiters from all the counties, to a considerable 
distance around. The decision upon the demurrer had pro- 
duced a violent ferment among the people, and equal exultation 
on the part of the clergy ; who attended the court in a large 
body, either to look down opposition, or to enjoy the final 
triumph of this hard-fought contest, which they now consider- 
ed as perfectly secure. 

Among many other clergymen, wdio attended on this occa- 
sion, came the Reverend Patrick Henry, who was the plaintiff in 
another cause of the same nature, then depending in court. 
When Mr. Henry saw his uncle approach, he walked up to his 
carriage, accompanied by Colonel Meredith, and expressed his 
regret at seeing him there. " Why so ?" inquired the uncle. 
*' Because, sir," said Mr. Henry, " you know that I have never 
yet spoken in public, and I fear that I shall be too much over- 
awed by your presence, to be able to do my duty to my clients ; 
besides, sir; I shall be obliged to say some hard things of the 
clergy, and I am very unwilling to give pain to your feelings." 
His uncle reproved him for having engaged in the cause ; 
which Mr. Henry excused by saying, that the clergy had not 



PATRICK II EN 11 Y. 27 

thought hhn worthy of being retained on their side, and he 
knew of no moral principle by which he was bound to refuse 
a fee from their adversaries ; besides, he confessed, that in this 
controversy, both his heart and judgment, as well as his pro- 
fessional duty, were on the side of the people ; he then request- 
ed that his uncle would do him the favour to leave the ground. 
" Why, Patrick," said the old gentleman, with a good-natur- 
ed smile, " as to your saying hard things of the clergy, I ad- 
vise you to let that alone : take my word for it, you will do 
yourself more harm than you will them ; and as to my leaving 
the ground, I fear, my boy, that my presence could neither do 
you harm nor good in such a cause. However, since you seem 
to think otherwise, and desire it of me so earnestly, you shall 
be gratified." Whereupon, he entered his carriage again, and 
returned home. 

Soon after the opening of the court, the cause was called. 
It stood on a writ of inquiry of damages, no plea having been 
entered by the defendants since the judgment on the demurrer. 
The array before Mr. Henry's eyes was now most fearful. On 
the bench sat more than twenty clergymen, the most learned 
men in the colony, and the most capable, as well as the sever- 
est critics, before whom it was possible for him to make his 
debut. The court-house was crowded with an overwhelming 
multitude, and surrounded with an immense and anxious throng, 
who, not finding room to enter, were endeavouring to listen 
without, in the deepest attention. 

But there was something still more awfully disconcerting 
than all this ; for in the chair of the presiding magistrate sat 
no other person than his ov/n father. Mi"* Lyons opened the 
cause very briefly : in the way of argument he did nothing 
more than explain to the jury, that the decision upon the de- 
murrer had put the act of seventeen hundred and fifty-eight en- 
tirely out of the way, and left the law of seventeen hundred 
and forty-eight as the only standard of their damages ; he then 
concluded with a highly-wrought eulogium on the benevo- 
lence of the clergy. 

And now came on the first trial of Patrick Henry's strengtli. 
No one had ever heard him speak, and curiosity was on tiptoe. 
He rose very awkwardly, and faltered much in his exordium. 
The people hung their heads at so unpromising a commence- 
ment ; the clergy were observed to excliange, sly looks with 
each other ; and his father is described as having almost sunk 
with confusion from his seat. 

But these feelings were of short duration, and soon gave 
place to others, of a very difierent character. For nov/ were 
those wonderful faculties which he possessed, for the first time, 



28 WilvT S LIFE OF 

developed ; and now was ihsi witnessed that mysterious and 
almost supernatural transformation of appearance, which the 
lire of his own eloquence never failed to work in him. For as 
jiis mind rolled along-, and began to glow from its own action, 
all the exuvice of the clown seemed to shed themselves sponta- 
neously. , 

His attitude, by degrees, became erect and lofty. The 
spirit of his geni»'s awakened all his features. His countenance 
shone with a nobleness and grandeur which it never before 
exhibited. There was a lightning in his eyes which seemed to 
rive the spectator. His action became graceful, bold, and com- 
manding ; and in the tones of his voice, but more especially in 
his emphasis, there was a peculiar charm, a magic of which any 
one who ever heard him will speak as soon as he is named, 
but of which no one can give any adequate description. They 
can only say that it struck upon the ear and upon the heart, i/i 
a manner which language cannot tell. Add to all these, his 
wonder-working fifncy, and the peculiar phraseology in which 
he clothed its imns^es ; for he painted to the heart with a force 
that almost petriiu-d it. In the language of those who heard 
him on this occasion, " he made their blood run cold, and their 
hair to rise on end." 

It will not be difHcult for any one who ever heard this most 
extraordinary man, to believe the whole account of this trans- 
action, which is given by his surviving hearers ; and from their 
account, the courthouse of Hanover county must have exhibit- 
ed on this occasion, a scene as picturesque, as has been ever 
witnessed in real life. 

They say that the people, whose countenance had fallen as 
he arose, had heard but a very few sentences before they began 
to look up; then to look at each other with surprise, as if 
doubting tlie eviderce of their own senses; then, attracted by 
some strong gesture, struck by some majestic attitude, fascin- 
ated by the spell of his eye, the charm of h\s emphasis, and 
the varied and commanding expression of his countenance, 
they could look away no more. 

In less than twenty minutes, they might be seen in every 
part of the house, on every bench, in every \vindow, stooping 
forward from their stands, in deathlike silence ; their features 
fixed in amazement and awe ; all their senses listening and 
riveted upon the speaker, as if to catch the last strain of some 
heavenly visitant. The mockery of the clergy was soon turn- 
ed into alarm ; their triumph into confusion and despair ; and 
at one burst of his rapid and overwhelming invective, they 
fled from the bench in precipitation and terror. As for the 
father, such was his surprise, such his amazement, such Ma 



PATRICK HENRY. ^9 

rapture, that, forgetting where he was, and t]ie character which 
he was filling, tears of ecstasy streamed down his cheeks, with- 
out the power or inclination to repress them. 

The jury seem to have been so completely bewildered, that 
they lost sight, not only of the act of seventeen hundred and 
forty-eight, i3ut that of seventeen hundred and lifty-eight also; 
for thoughtless even of the "admitted right of the plaintiff, they 
had scarcely left the bar, when they returned with a ver- 
dict of one penny damages. A motion was made for a new 
trial ; but the court, too, had now lost the equipoise of their 
judgment, and overruled the motion by a unanimous vote. 
The verdict and judgment overruling the motion, were fol- 
lowed by redoubled acclamations, from within and without the 
house. 

The people, who hadv/ith difficulty kept their hands off their 
champion, from the moment of closing his harangue, no sooner 
saw the fate of the cause finally sealed, than they seized him 
at the bar, and in spite of his own exertions, and the continued 
cry of " order" from the sheriffs and the court, they bore him 
out of the courthouse, and raising him on their shoulders, car- 
ried him about the yard, in a kind of electioneering triumph. 

! what a scene was this for a father's heart ! so sudden ; 
so unlooked for ; so delightfully overwhelming ! At the time, 
he was not able to give utterance to any sentiment ; but, a few 
days after, when speaking of it to Mr. Winston, (the present 
Judge Winston,) he said, with the most engaging modesty, and 
with a tremour of voice, which showed how much more he felt 
than he expressed, "Patrick spoke in this cause near an hour! 
and in a manner that surprised me ! and showed himself well- 
informed on a subject, of which I did not think he had any 
knowledge !" 

1 have tried much to procure a sketch of this celebrated 
speech. But those of Mr. Henry's hearers who survive, seem 
to have been bereft of their senses. They can only tell you, 
in general, that they were taken captive ; and so delighted with 
their captivity, that they followed implicitly, whithersoever he 
led them : that, at his bidding, their tears flowed from pity, 
and their cheeks flushed with indignation : that when it was 
over, they felt as if they had just awaked from some ecstatic 
dream, of which they were unable to recall or connect the par- 
ticulars. It was such a speech as they believe had never be- 
fore fallen from the lips of man ; and to this day, the old peo- 
ple of Aat county cannot conceive that a higher compliment 
can be paid to a speaker, than to say of him, in their own 
homely phrase : — " He is almost equal to Patrick, when he 
plead against the parsons.'''' 



30 wirt':^ life of 

The only topic of this speech of which any authentic accoui^t 
remains, is the order of the king- in council, whereby the act 
of seventeen hundred and fifty-eight had been declared void. 
This subject had in truth been disposed of by the demurrer ; 
and, in strictness of proceeding, neither Mr. Henry nor the 
jury had anything to do with it. The laxity of the county- 
court practice, however, indulged him in the widest career he 
chose to take, and he laid hold of this point, neither with a fee- 
ble nor hesitating hand ; but boldly and vigorously pressed it 
upon the jury, and that, too, with very powerful effect. 

He insisted on the connexion and reciprocal duties between 
the king and his subjects ; maintained that government was u 
conditional compact, composed of mutual and dependant cove- 
nants, of which a violation by one party discharged the other r, 
and intrepidly contended that the disregard which had been 
shown, in this particular, to the pressing wants of the colony, 
was an instance of royal misrule, v/hich had thus far dissolved 
the political compact, and left the people at liberty to consult 
their own safety, that they had consulted it by the act of 
seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, which, therefore, notwith- 
standing the dissent of the king and his council, ought to be 
considered as the law of the land, and the only legitimate meas- 
ure of the claims of the clergy. 

The nature of this topic, and the earnest and undaunted man- 
ner in which Mr. Henry is said to have pursued and maintain- 
ed it, proves that even at this period, which has been marked 
as the era of our greatest attachment and devotion to the pa- 
rent country, his mind, at least, was disposed to pry into the 
course of the regal administration, and to speak forth his sen- 
timents without any fear of the consequences. The reception 
which the people gave to the argument, proves that they also 
had no superstitious repugnance to the consideration of such 
topics, nor any very insuperable horror at the idea of a separa- 
tion. Not that there is ground to suspect that any one had, 
at this time, realized such an event, or even contemplated it 
as desirable. 

The su-{r2:estion, therefore, which I have sometimes heard, 
that Mr. Henry was already meditating the independence of the 
c^'^nies, and sowing the seeds of those reflections which he-. 
wished to ripen into revolt, is, in my opinion, rather curioufi 
than just. I believe that he thought of nothing beyond success 
in his cause ; and since the desperate posture in which ke found 
it demanded a daring and eccentric course, he adopted that 
which has been already stated. The character of his argument 
proves that he was naturally a bold and intrepid inquirer, whd 
was not to be overawed from his purpose by the name even of 



l^ATRICK HENRY. 31 

sovereignty itself; and of course that he was made of good 
revolutionary materials. 

But an adequate provocation had not at this time been given : 
and it would be imputing to Mr. Henry a criminal ambition, of 
which there is no proof, to suppose that he was meditating the 
subversion of a government, against which the voice of serious 
complaint had not yet been heard. Besides, Mr. Henry's 
standing in society was at this period so humble, as to have 
rendered the meditation of such a purpose, on his part, pre- 
sumptuous in the extreme ; and equally inconsistent both with 
his unassuming modesty, and that natural good sense and accu- 
rate judgment which are, on all hands, assigned to him. 

Immediately on the decision of this cause, he was retained 
in all the cases, within the range of his practice, which depend- 
ed on the same question. But no other case was ever brought 
to trial. They were, all throughout the colony, dismissed by 
the plaintiffs ; nor was any appeal ever prosecuted in the case 
of Mr. Maury. The reason assigned for this by Mr. Camm is, 
that the legislature had voted money to support the appeal on 
the part of the defendants, ai>d that the clergy v/ere not rich 
enough to contend against the whole wealth and strength of 
the colony.* 

The clergy took their revenge in an angry pamphlet from 
the pen of Mr. Camm, in which a very contemptuous account 
IS given both of the advocate and the court. Mr. Henry is 
stigmatized in it as an obscure attorney : and the epithet was 
true enough as to the time past, but it was now true no longer. 
His sun had risen with a splendour which had never before 
been witnessed in this colony ; and never afterward did it dis- 
grace this glorious rising. 

* Mr. Camm is right as to the interference of the legislature. I have not 
been able, however, to find any resolution of the legislature to this effect, ear 
Her than the seventh of April, seventeen hundred and sixty-seven : where 
Mr. Maury's case was decided in Hanover, on the first of December, seventee 
hundred and sixty-three. The following is extracted from the journal of the 
day first mentioned : — 

"On a motion made — Resolved, that the committee of correspondence be 
directed to write to the agent, to defend the parish-collectors from all appeals 
from judgments here given, in suits brought by the clergy, for recovering their 
salaries, payable on or before the last day of May, seventeen hundred and fifty- 
nine ; and that this house will engage to defray the expense thereof." 



,33 wirt's life of 



CHAPTER II. 

State of Society in Virginia — Mr. Henry's Popularity — His Appearance befor 
the House of Burgesses — The Stamp-Act — Mr. Henry is elected a Meix- 
ber of the House — Anecdote of Washington — Sketches of Public Charac 
ters : John Robinson, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton, George Wyth© 
and Richard Henry Lee — He opposes the Aristocracy of the House on the 
Proposition for a Loan-Office — Introduces his celebrated Resolutions against 
the Stamp- Act — The Effect — Mr. Jefferson's Account of this Transaction — 
Anecdote of the Debate. 

It is almost unnecessary to state, that the display which Mr. 
Henry had made in " the parsons^ cause,^^ as it was popularly 
called, placed him at once at the head of his profession, in that 
quarter of the colony in which he practised. He became the 
theme of every tongue. He had exhibited a degree of elo- 
quence, which the people had never before witnessed ; a spe- 
cies of eloquence, too, entirely new at the bar, and altogether 
his own. He had formed it on no living model, for there was 
none such in the country. He had not copied it from books, 
for they had described nothing of the kind ; or if they had, he 
was a stranger to their contents. 

Nor had he formed it himself, by solitary study and exercise ; 
for he was far too indolent for any such process. It was so 
unexampled, so unexpected, so instantaneous, and so transcend- 
ent in its character, that it had, to the people, very much the 
appearance of supernatural inspiration. He was styled " the 
orator of nature ;''^ and was, on that account, much more re- 
vered by the people than if he had been formed by the severest 
discipline of the schools ; for they considered him as bringing 
his credentials directly from heaven, and owing no part of his 
greatness to human institutions. 

There were other considerations, also, which drew him still 
more closely to the bosom of the people. The society of Vir- 
ginia was at that time pretty strongly discriminated. A gen- 
tleman who lived in those days, and who had the best opportu- 
nities of judging on the subject, has furnished the following 
interesting picture of it : — 

*' To state the differences between the classes of society, and 
the lines of demarcation which separated them, would be diffi- 
cult. The law, you know, admitted none, except as to the 
twelve counsellors. Yet, in a country insulated from the Euro- 
pean world, insulated from its sister colonies, with whom there 
was scarcely any intercourse, little visited by foreigners, and 
having little matter to act upon within itself, certain families 
had risen to splendour by wealth, and by the preservation of it 
from generation to generation, under the law of entails ; some 



PATRICK HENRY. 33 

had produced a series of men of talents ; families in general 
had remained stationary on the grounds of their forefathers, 
for there was no emigration to the westward in those days ; 
the Irish, who had gotten possession of the valley between the 
Blue Ridge and the North Mountain, formed a barrier over 
which none ventured to leap ; and their manners presented no 
attraction to the lowlanders to settle among them. 

"In such a state of things, scarcely admitting any change of 
station, society would settle itself down into several strata^ 
separated by no marked lines, but shading off imperceptibly 
from top to bottom, nothing disturbing the order of their repose. 
There were, then, first, aristocrats, composed of the great lanr- 
holders, who had seated themselves below tidewater on the main 
rivers, and lived in a style of luxury and extravagance insup- 
• portable by the other inhabitants, and which indeed, ended in 
several instances in the ruin of their ow^n fortunes. Next 
to these were what might be called half-breeds ; the de- 
scendants of the younger sons and daughters of the aristo- 
crats, who inherited the pride of their ancestors, without their 
wealth. 

"Then came the pretenders, men, who, from vanity or the im- 
pulse of growing wealth, or from that enterprise which is nat- 
ural to talenfs, sought to detach themselves from the plebeian 
ranks, to which they properly belonged, and imitated- at some 
distance, the manners and habits of the great. Next to these, 
were a solid and independent yeomanry, looking askance at 
those above, yet not venturing to jostle them. And last and 
lowest, B. feculum of beings, called overseers, the most abject, 
degraded, unprincipled race ; always cap in hand to the dons 
who employed them, and furnishing materials for the exercise 
of their pride, insolence and spirit of domination." 

It was from the body of the yeomanry, whom my correspond 
ent represents as " looking askance" at those above them, that 
Mr. Henry proceeded. He belonged to the body of the people. 
His birth, education, fortune, and manners, made him one of 
themselves. They regarded him, therefore, as their own prop 
erty, and sent to them expressly for the very purpose of hum • 
bling the pride of the mighty, and exalting the honour of his 
own class. 

Mr. Henry had too much sagacity not to see this advantage, 
and too much good sense not to keep and to improve it. He seems 
to have formed to himself, very early in life, just views of so- 
ciety, and to have acted upon them with the most laudable sys- 
tem and perseverance. He regarded government as instituted 
solely for the good of the people ; and not for the benefit of 
those who had contrived to make a job of it. He looked upon 



B4 wirt's life of 

the body of the people, therefore, as the basis of society, the 
foiintair of all power, and, directly or indirectly, of all offices 
and honours, which had been instituted originally for their use. 
He made it no secret, therefore ; nay, he made it his boast, that 
on every occasion, " he bowed to the majesty of the people." 

With regard to himself, he saw very distinctly, that all his 
hopes rested on the people's favour. He therefore adhered to 
them with unshaken fidelity. He retained their manners, their 
customs, all their modes of life, with religious caution. He 
dressed as plainly as the plainest of them ; ate only the homely 
fare, and drank the simple beverage of the country ; mixed 
with them on a footing of the most entire and perfect equality, 
and conversed with them, even in their own vicious and de- 
praved pronunciation.* 

If this last were the effect of artful compliance, as has been 
strenuously affirmed, it was certainly carrying the system far 
ther than dignity would M\^rrant. Mr. Henry should have 
been the instructer as well as tlie friend of the people, and, by 
his example, have corrected instead of adopting their errors. 
It is very certain, that by this course he disgusted many o( 
those whom it was often his business to persuade ; not because 
they considered it as a proof of vulgarity and ignorance, but 
because they regarded it as a premeditated artifice to catch the 
favour and affections of the people. That it was so, I am not 
disposed to believe. I think it much more probable, that those 
errors of pronunciation were the effect of early and inveterate 
habit, which had become incurable before he was informed of 
his mistake. 

He had no occasion to resort to such petty artifices, either to 
gain or to hold the affections of the people. He held them by 
a much higher and a much firmer title : the simplicity of his 
manners ; the benevolence of his disposition ; the integrity of 
his life ; his real devotion to their best interests ; that uncom- 
mon sagacity, which enabled him to discern those interests in 
every situation; and the unshaken constancy with which he 
pursued them, in spite of every difficulty and danger that could 
threaten him. From the point of time, of which we are now 
speaking, it is very certain that he suffered no gale of fortune, 
however high or prosperous, to separate him from the people : 
nor did the people, on their part, ever desert him. He was 

* Governor Page relates, that he once heard him express the following sen- 
timents, in this vicious pronunciation : — " Naiteral parts is better than all the 
larnin upon yearth ;" but the accuracy of Mr. Page's memory is questioned in 
this particular, by the acquaintances of Mr. Henry, who say, that he was too 
good a grammarian to have uttered such a sentence, although they admit the 
inaccuracy of his pronunciation, in some of the words imputed to him. 



PATR.CK HENRY. 



35 



the man to whom they looked in every crisis of difficulty, and 
the favourite on whom they were ever ready to lavish all the 
honours in their gift. 

Middleton, in his life of Cicero, tells us, that the first great 
speech of that orator, his defence of Roscius of Ameria, was 
made at the age of twenty-seven ; the same age, he adds, 
at which the learned have remarked, that Demosthenes distin- 
guished himself in the assembly of the Athenians : — " as if this 
were the age," I quote his own words, " at which these great 
genios regularly bloomed toward maturity." 

It is rather curious, than important, to observe, that Mr. 
Henry furnishes another instance in support of this theory ; 
since it was precisely in the same year of his life, that his tal- 
ents first became known to himself and to the world. Nor let 
the admirer of antiquity revolt at our coupling the name of 
Henry with those of Cicero and Demosthenes : it can be no 
degradation to the orator either of Greece or Rome, that his 
name stands enrolled on the same page with that of a man of 
whom such a judge of eloquence as Mr. Jefierson has said, 
that " he was the greatest orator that ever lived.''^ 

But the taste of professional fame which Mr. Henry had de- 
rived from the " parsons' cause," exquisite as it liiust have been, 
was not sufficient to inspire him with a thirst for the learning 
of his profession. He had an insuperable aversion to the old 
hlack-letter of the law-hooks, (which was often a topic of rail- 
lery with him,) and he was never able to conquer it, except for 
preparation in some particular cause. No love of distinction, 
no necessity, however severe, were strong enough to bind him 
down to a regular course of reading. 

He could not brook the confinement. The reasoning of the 
law was too artificial, and too much cramped for him. While 
unavoidably engaged in it, he felt as if manacled. His mind 
was perpetually struggling to break away. His genius delight- 
ed in liberty and space, in which it might roam at large, and 
feast on every variety of intellectual enjoyment. Hence, he- 
was never profound in the learning of the law. On a question 
merely legal, his inferiors, in point of talents, frequently em- 
barrassed and foiled him ; and it required all the resources of 
his extraordinary mind to support the distinction which he had: 
now gained. 

The most successful practice in the county courts was, in 
those days, but a slender dependance for a family. Notwith- 
standing, therefore, the great addition to his business, which 
we have noticed, Mr. Henry seems still to have been pressed 
by want. With the hope of improving his situation, he re- 
moved, in the year seventeen hundred and sixty-four, to the 



36 WIRT S LIFE OF 

county of Louisa, and resided at a place called the Round 
about. Here I have learned nothing remarkable of him, unle&s 
it may be thought so, that he pursued his favourite amusement 
of hunting with increased ardour. 

" After his removal to Louisa," says my informant, " he has 
been known to hunt deer, frequently for several days together, 
carrying bis provision with him, and at nigbt encamping in the 
woods. After the hunt was over, he would go from the ground 
to Louisa court, clad in a coarse cloth coat, stained with all the 
trophies of the chase, greasy leather breeches, ornamented in 
the same way, leggings for boots, and a pair of saddle-bags on 
his arm. Thus accoutred, he would enter the courthouse, 
take up the first of his causes that chanced to be called ; and if 
there was any scope for his peculiar talent, throw his adversary 
into the background, and astonish both court and jury, by the 
powerful effusions of his natural eloquence." 

There must have been something irresistibly captivating in 
Mr. Henry's mode of speaking, even on the most trivial sub- 
jects. The late Judge Lyons has been heard to say of himself, 
while practising with Mr. Henry, that "he could write a letter, 
or draw a declaration or plea at the bar, with as much accu- 
racy, as he could in his office, under all circumstances, except 
when Patrick rose to speak ; but that whenever he rose, al- 
though it might be on so trilling a subject as a summons and 
petition for twenty shillings, he was obliged to lay down his 
pen, and could not write another word, until the speech was 
finished." Such was the charm of his voice and manner, and 
the interesting originality of his conceptions ! 

In the fall of seventeen hundred and sixty-four, Mr. Henry 
had an opportunity of exhibiting himself on a new theatre. A 
contest occurred in the house of burgesses, in the case of Mr. 
James Littlepage, the returned member for the county of Han-- 
over. The rival candidate and petitioner was Nathaniel West 
Dandridge.* The charge against Mr. Littlepage was bribery 
and corruption. The parties were heard by their counsel, be- 
fore the committee of privileges and elections, and Mr. Henry 
was on this occasion employed by Mr. Dandridge. 

Williamsburgh, then the seat of government, was the focus 
of fashion and high life. The residence of the governor, (the 
immediate representative of the sovereign,) the royal state in 

* Here is another mistake of Mr. Burk. He states the contest to have 
been between Col. Syme (Mr. H,enry's half-brother) and Col. Richard Little- 
page. The journal contradicts him, and supports the text. There was no 
such contest as that of which he speaks ; at least, between the years seventeen 
hundred and sixty-two and seventeen hundred and sixty-eight. 



PATRICK HENRY. 37 

which he lived, the polite and brilliant circle which he always 
h&d about him, difiused their influence through the city and the 
circumjacent county, and filled Williamsburgh with a degree of 
emulation, taste, and elegance, of which we can form no con- 
ception by the appearances of the present day. During the 
session of the house of burgesses, too, these stately modes of 
life assumed their richest forms ; the town was filled with a 
concourse of visiters, as well as citizens, attired in their gayest 
colours ; the streets exhibited a continual scene of animated 
and glittering tumult ; the houses, of costly profusion. 

Such was the scene in which Mr. Henry was now called 
upon, for the first time, to make his appearance. He made no 
preparation for it, but went down just in the kind of garb which 
he had been accustomed to exhibit all his life, and is said to have 
worn on this occasion particularly, a suit which had sufl^ered 
very considerably in the service. The contrast which he ex- 
hibited with the general elegance of the place, was so striking, 
as to call upon him the eyes of all the curious and the mis- 
chievous ; and, as he moved awkwardly about, in his coarse 
and threadbare dress, with a countenance of abstraction and 
tetal unconcern as to what was passing around him, (interest- 
ing as it seemed to every one else,) he was stared at by some 
as a prodigy, and regarded by others as an unfortunate being, 
whose senses were disordered. 

When he went to attend the committee of privileges and elec- 
tions, the matter was still worse. " The proud airs of aristoc- 
racy," says Judge Tyler, detailing this incident of Mr. Henry's 
life, "added to the dignified forms of that truly august body, 
were enough to have deterred any man possessing less firm- 
ness and independence of spirit than Mr. Henry. He was 
ushered with great state and ceremony into the room of the 
committee, whose chairman was Colonel Bland.* 

" Mr. Henry was dressed in very coarse apparel ; no one 
knew anything of him ;t and scarcely was he treated with 

* Mr. Tyler says, "that enlightened and amiaMe man, John Blair;" but in 
this he is corrected bv the journal, which shows that Mr. Bland was the chair- 
man of the committee of privileges and elections for that year. I should have 
thought, from the general accuracy of Mr. Tyler's statement, that Mr. Blair 
might have been officiating as chairman pro tempore, in the absence of Col. 
Bland ; but that Mr. Blair does not appear, by the journal, to have belonged to 
the committee, or even to have been a member of the house in seventeen hun- 
dred and sixty-four. His name does not appear till seventeen hundred and 
sixty-six. 

Mr. Tyler, reciting Mr. Henry's own narrative, after a lapse of several years, 
might very easily have confounded two names as similar as those of Bland ami 
Blair. 

+ That is, T presume, of his person ; for after the very splendid exhibition 

4 



38 wirt's life of 

decent respect by any one except the chairman, who could not 
do so much violence to his feelings and principles, as to de- 
part, on any occasion, from the delicacy of the gentleman. But 
the general contempt was soon changed into as general admi- 
ration ; for Mr. Henry distinguished himself by a copious and 
brilliant display on the great subject of the rights of suffrage, 
superior to anything that had been heard before within those 
walls. Such a burst of eloquence, from a man so very plain 
and ordinary in his appearance, struck the committee with 
amazement ; so that a deep and perfect silence took place du- 
ring the speech, and not a sound but from his lips was to be heard 
in the room." 

So far, Judge Tyler. Judge Winston relating the same inci- 
dent, says : " Some time after, a member of the house, speaking 
to me of ihis occurrence, said, he had, for a day or two, ob- 
served an ill-dressed young man sauntering in the lobby ; that 
he seemed to be a stranger to everybody, and he had not the 
curiosity to inquire his name ; but that, attending when the 
case of the contested election came on, he was surprised to find 
this same person counsel for one o( the parties ; and still more 
so when he delivered an argument superior to anything he had 
ever heard." The case, according to the report of the com- 
mittee of privileges and elections, is not one which seems to 
present much scope for a very interesting discussion ; but Mr. 
Henry's was one of those minds which impart interest to every 
subject they touch. 

The same year, seventeen hundred and sixty-four, is mem 
orable for the origination of that great question which led final- 
ly to the independence of the United States. It has been said 
by a gentleman, at least as well qualified to judge as any other 
now alive, (Mr. Jefferson,) that " Mr. Henry certainly gave the 
first impulse to the ball of the revolution." In order to show 
the correctness of this position, it is proper to ascertain the 
precise point to which the controversy with Great Britain had 
advanced, when Mr. Henry first presented himself in the char 
acter of a statesman. 

In March, seventeen hundred and sixty-four, the British par- 
liament had passed resolutions, preparatory to the levying a 
revenue on the colonies by a stamp-tax. These resolutions 
were communicated to the house of burgesses of Virginia, 
through their committee of correspondence, by the colonial 
agent ; and having been maturely considered, resulted in the 
appointment of a special committee to prepare an address to 

which he made in the parsons' cause, his name could not have been wholly 
unknown : the text, however, gives the words of my correspondent faithfully. 



PATRICK HENRY. 39 

the king, a memorial to the lords, and a remonstrance to the 
house of commons. 

On the eighteenth of December, seventeen hundred and six- 
ty-four, these papers were reported, and (after various amend- 
ments, which considerably diluted their spirit) received the con- 
currence of the council. The reader will perceive, on perusing 
them, (see Appendix, note A,) that while they affirm, in clear 
and strong terms, the constitutional exemption of the colony 
from taxation by the British parliament, they breathe, never- 
theless, a tone so suppliant, and exhibit such a picture of anti- 
cipated suffering from the pressure of the tax on the exli^usted 
resources of the colony, as to indicate that no opposition be- 
fond remonstrance was, at this time, meditated. Remon- 
strance, however, was vain. In January, seventeen hundred 
tnd sixty-tive, the famous stamp-act was passed, to take effect 
*n the colonies on the first of November following. 

The annunciation of this measure seems at first to have stun- 
ned the comment from one extremity to the other. The pres- 
ses, which spread the intelligence among the people, were 
inemselves manifestly confounded ; and so far from inspiring 
the energy of resistance, they seemed rather disposed to have 
looked out for topics of consolation, under submission.* The 
truth IS, that ail ranks of society were confounded. No one 
knew what lo hope, what more to fear, or what course was best 
to be taken. Some, indeed, were fond enough to entertain 
hopes that tne united remonstrances of the colonial legislatures, 
the fate of wnich had not yet been heard, might induce the 
mother-couniry to change her policy ; these hopes, however, 
were faint ; and lew there were that entertained them. Many, 
considered submission, in the present state of the colonies, as 
unavoidable ; and that this was the opinion of Doctor Franklin 
himself, is apparent from the remark with which he took leave 
of Mr. Ingersol, on his departure for America. f 

The idea of resistance, by force was nowhere glanced at in 
the most distant manner ; no heart seems to have been bold 
enough, at first, to conceive it. Men, on other occasions mark- 
ed for intrepidity and decision, now hung back, unwilling to 
subm.it, and yet afraid to speak out in the language of bold and 

* Thus in the Pennsylvania Gazette of the thirtieth of May, seventeen hun- 
dred and sixty-five : "We hear the sums of money arisintr from the new stamp 
duties in North America, for the first five years, are chiefly to be applied tow- 
ard making commodious post-roads from one province to another, erecting 
bridges where necessary, and other measures equally important to facilitate an 
extensive trade." 

t " Go home and tell your countrymen to get children as fast as they 
can." — Gordon. 



40 WIRT S LIFE OF 

open defiance. It was just at this moment of despondency in 
some quarters, suspense in others, and surly and reluctant sub- 
mission wherever submission appeared, that Patrick Henry 
stood forth to raise the drooping spirit of the people, and to 
unite all hearts and hands in the cause of his country. 

With the view of making way for him, and placing him in 
the public councils of his country, Mr. William Johnson, who 
had been elected a member of the house of burgesses for the 
county of Louisa, vacated his seat by accepting the commission 
of coroner. The writ of election to supply his place was 
awarded on the first of May, seventeen hundred and sixty-five, 
and on the twentieth day of that month, it appears by the jour- 
nals, that Mr. Henry was added to the committee for courts of 
justice. 

Here, again, he was upon a new theatre, and personally un- 
known, except to those few who might have heard his argu- 
ment on the contested election of Mr. Littlepage, the preceding 
winter. His dress and manners were still those of the plain 
planter, and, in his personal appearance, there was nothing to 
excite curiosity, or awaken expectation. The forms of the 
house, of which he was now for the first time a member, v/ere, 
as has been stated, most awfully dignified ; its active members 
were composed of the landed aristocracy and their adherents ; 
and among them v/ere men to whose superiority of talents, as well 
as influence and power, the yeomanry of the country had long 
been accustomed to bow with tacit and submissive deference. 

John Robinson, the speaker of the house, was one of the 
most opulent men in the colony, and the acknowledged head of 
its landed aristocracy. He had now filled the chair of the 
house with great dignity, and without interruption, for five-and- 
twenty years. He was, also, the colonial treasurer; and from 
the high offices which he held, in connexion with the regal 
government, was as warmly attached to its authority by inter- 
est, as he was by taste and fashion to all the grandeur of its 
forms. 

But, notwithstanding this close alliance with the court, his 
personal influence, in every class of society, was very great ; 
and he held that influence by a tenure far superior to any that 
his own vast wealth or the power of the crown could confer. 
For he possessed a strong and well-informed mind, enlarged 
and corrected by great experience, and he united with it a be- 
nevolence of spirit and a courtesy of manners which never fail- 
ed to attach every heart that approached him. The poor drew 
near to him without awe or embarrassment ; they came, indeed, 
with filial confidence ; for they never failed to find in him a 
sympathetic friend and an able counsellor. The rich enjoyed 



PATRICK HENRY. 41 

in him an easy, enlightened, and instructive companion ; and, 
next to the governor, regarded him as the highest model of 
elegance and fashion. 

An anecdote is related of this gentleman, which displays in 
a strong and amiable light, the exalted force of his feelings, 
and the truly noble cast of his manners. When Colonel Wash- 
ington (the immortal saviour of his country) had closed his 
career in the French and Indian war, and had become a mem- 
ber of the house of burgesses, the speaker, Robinson, was 
directed, by a vote of the house, to return their thanks to that 
gentleman, on behalf of the colony, for the distinguished mili- 
tary services which he had rendered to his country. As soon 
as Colonel Washington took his seat, Mr. Robinson, in obedi- 
ence to this order, a^nd following the impulse of his own gen- 
erous and grateful heart, discharged the duty with great dig- 
nity ; but with such warmth of colouring and strength of 
expression, as entirely confounded the young hero. 

He rose to express his acknowledgments for the honour ; but 
such was his trepidation and confusioii, that he could not give 
distinct utterance to a single syllable. He blushed, stammer- 
ed, and trembled, for a second ; when the speaker relieved him 
by a stroke of address that would have done honour to Louis 
XIV. in his proudest and happiest moment. " Sit down, Mr. 
Washington," said he, with a conciliating smile; "your mod- 
esty is equal to your valour ; and that surpasses the power of 
any language that I possess."* 

Peyton Randolph, the king's attorney-general, held the next 
rank to the speaker. He was not distinguished for eloquence ; 
but he derived great weight from the solid powers of his un- 
derstanding, and the no less solid virtues of his heart. He 
was well acquainted with all the forms of parliamentary pro- 
ceeding ; was an eminent lawyer, and a well-informed and prac 
tical statesman. 

Richard Bland was one of the most enlightened men in the 
colony. He was a man of finished education, and of the most 
unbending habits of application. His perfect mastery of every 
fact connected with the settlement and progress of the colony, 
had given him the name of the Virginian antiquary.f He was 
a politician of the first class ; a profound logician, and was also 
considered as the first writer in the colony-! 

Edmund Pendleton, the protege of the speaker Robinson, 
was also among the most prominent members in the house. 

* On the authority of Edmund Randolph. t Edmund Randolph. 

t " He was," says a correspondent, "the most learned and logical man ol 
ihose who took a prominent lead in public affairs ; profound in constitutional 

4* 



4*2 WIRT S LIFE OF 

He had, in a great measure, overcome the disadvantages of an 
extremely defective education, and by the force of good com- 
pany and the study of correct authors, had attained to great 
accuracy and perspicuity of style. The patronage of the 
speaker had introduced him to the first circles, and his man- 
ners were elevated, graceful and insinuating. His person was 
spare, but well-proportioned ; and his countenance one of the 
finest in the world ; serene — contemplative — benignant — with 
that expression of unclouded intelligence and extensive re- 
search, which seemed to denote him capable of anything that 
could be effected by the power of the human mind. 

His mind itself was of a very fine order. It was clear, com- 
prehensive, sagacious and correct ; with a most acute and sub- 
ile faculty of discrimination ; a fertility of expedient which 
ould never be exhausted ; a dexterity of address which never lost 
'1 advantage and never gave one ; and a capacity for continued 
and unremitting application, which was perfectly invincible. 

As a lawyer and a statesman, he had few equals ; no supe- 
riors. For parliamentary management, he was without a rival. 
With all these advantages of person, manners, address, and 
intellect, he was also a speaker of distinguished eminence. 

He had that silver voice* of which Cicero makes such fre- 
quent and honourable mention — an articulation uncommonly 
distinct — a perennial stream of transparent, cool, and sweet 
elocution; and the power of presenting his arguments with 
great simplicity and striking effect. He was always graceful, 
argumentative, persuasive ; never vehement, rapid, or abrupt. 
He could instruct and delight ; but he had no pretensions to 
those high powers which are calculated to " shake the human 
soul." 

George Wythe, also a member of the House, was confessed- 
ly among the first in point of abilities. There is a story circu- 
lated, as upon his own authority, that he was initiated by his 

lore ; but a most ungraceful speaker in debate.' He wrote the first pamphlet 
on the nature of the connexion with Great Britain, which had anv pretensions 
to accuracy of view on that subject ; but it was a singular one : he would set 
out on sound principles, pursue them logically, till he found them leading to 
the precipice which we had to leap ; start back, alarmed ; then resume his 
ground, go over it in another direction, be led again, by the correctness of his 
reasoning, to the same place, and again tack about and try other processes to 
reconcile right and wrong ; but left his reader and himself bewildered between 
the steady index of the compass in their hand, and the phantasm to which it 
seemed to point. Still, there was more sound matter in this pamphlet than in 
the celebrated Farmer's Letters, which were really but an ignis fatuus, mis- 
leading us from true principle." 

• Vox argentea. See the Brutus, passim. 



PATRICK HENRY. 43 

mother in the Latin classics. f Be this as it may, it is certain 
that he had raised upon the original foundation, whencesoever 
acquired, a superstructure of ancient literature which has heen 
rarely equalled in this country. He was perfectly familiar 
with the authors of Greece and Rome; read them with the 
same ease, and quoted them with the same promptitude that he 
could the authors in his native tongue. He carried his love of 
anliquity rather too far ; for he frequently subjected himself to 
the charge of pedantry ; and his admiration of the gigantic 
writers of Queen Elizabeth's reign, had unfortunately betrayed 
him into an imitation of their quaintness. 

Yet, with all this singularity of taste, he was a man of great 
capacity ; powerful in argument ; frequently pathetic ; and ele- 
gantly keen and sarcastic in repartee. He was long the rival 
of Mr. Pendleton at the bar, whom he equalled as a common 
lawyer, and greatly surpassed as a civilian : but he was too 
open and direct in his conduct, and possessed too little man- 
agement, either with regard to his own temper or those of 
other men, to cope with so cool and skilful an adversary. 
Though a full match for Mr. Pendleton in the powers of fair 
and solid reasoning, Mr. Pendleton could, whenever he pleased, 
and would, whenever it was necessary, tease him with quibbles, 
and vex him with sophistries, until he destroyed the composure 
of his mind, and robbed him of his strength. 

No man was ever more entirely destitute of art than Mr. 
Wythe. He knew nothing, even in his profession, and never 
would know anything of " crooked and indirect by-ways." 
Whatever he had to do, was to be done openly, avowedly, and 
above-board. He would not, even at the bar, have accepted 
of success on any other terms. 

This simplicity and integrity of character, although it some- 
times exposed him to the arts and sneers of the less scrupulous, 
placed him before his countrymen on the ground which Cesar 
wished his wife to occupy ; he was not only pure, but above 
all suspicion. The unaffected sanctity of his principles, united 
with his modesty and simple elegance of manners, his attic wit, 
his stores of rare knowledge, his capacity for business, and the 
real power of his intellect, not only raised him to great emi- 
nence in public, but rendered him a delightful companion, and 
a most valuable friend. 

But Richard Henry Lee was the Cicero of the house. His 
face itself was on the Roman model ; his nose Cesarean ; the 
port and carriage of his head, leaning persuasively and grace- 
fully forward ; and the whole contour noble and fine. Mr. Lee 
was, by far, the most elegant scholar in the house. He had 

* I heard it from the late Judge Nelson, his relation. 



44 wirt's life of 

studied the classics in the true spirit of criticism. His taste 
had that delicate touch, which seized with intuitive certainty 
every beauty of an author, and his genius that native affinity 
which combined them without an effort. Into every walk of 
literature and science, he had carried this mind of exquisite 
selection, and brought it back to the business of life, crowned 
with every light of learning, and decked with every wreath, 
that all the muses and all the graces could entwine. 

Nor did those light decorations constitute the whole value of 
its freight. He possessed a rich store of historical and politi- 
cal knowledge, with an activity of observation, and a certainty 
of judgment, that turned that knowledge to the very best ac- 
count. He was not a lawyer by profession ; but he understood 
thoroughly the constitution both of the mother-country and 
her colonies ; and the elements also of the civil and municipal 
law. Thus, while his eloquence was free from those stiff and 
technical restraints which the habits of forensic speaking are 
so apt to generate, he had all the legal learning which is neces- 
sary to a statesman. He reasoned well, and declaimed freely 
and splendidly. The note of his voice was deeper and more 
melodious than that of Mr. Pendleton. It was the canorous 
voice* of Cicero. 

He had lost the use of one of his hands, which he kept con- 
stantly covered with a black-silk bandage, neatly fitted to the 
palm of his hand, but leaving his thumb free ; yet, notwith- 
standing this disadvantage, his gesture was so graceful and so 
highly finished, that it was said he had acquired it by practising 
before a mirror.f Such was his promptitude, that he required 
no preparation for debate. He was ready for any subject, as 
soon as it was announced ; and his speech was so copious, so 
rich, so mellifluous, set off wdth such bewitching cadence of 
voice, and such captivating grace of action, that, while you 
listened to him, you desired to hear nothing superior, and in- 
deed thought him perfect. He had a quick sensibility and a 
fervid imagination, which Mr. Pendleton Avanted. Hence his 
orations were warmer and more delightfully interesting ; yet 
still, to him those keys were not consigned which could unlock 
the sources either of the strong or tender passions. 

His defect was, that he was too smooth and too sweet. His 
style bore a striking resemblance to that of Herodotus, as de- 
scribed by the Roman orator : " He flowed on, like a quiet 
and placid river, without a ripple. "J He flowed, too, through 
banks covered with all the fresh verdure and variegated bloom 

* Vox canora. See the Brutus, passim. f Edmund Randolph. 

t Sine vXlis scdebris, quasi sedatus amnis, Jluit. Orat. XII. 39. 



PATRICK HENRY. 45 

of the spring ; but his course was too subdued, and too beauti- 
fully regular. A cataract, like that of Niagara, crowned with 
overhanging rocks and mountains, in all the rude and awful 
grandeur of nature, would have brought him nearer to the 
standard of Homer and of Henry. 

These were some of the stars of first magnitude that shone 
in the house of burgesses in the year seventeen hundred and 
sixty-five. There was yet a cluster of minor luminaries, which 
it were endless to delineate, but whose blended rays contrib- 
uted to form that uncommon galaxy in which the plebeian 
Henry was now called upon to take his place. What had he 
to enable him to cope with all this lustre of talents and erudi- 
tion ? Very little more than the native strength of his charac- 
ter ; a constancy of soul, which no array of power could 
shake ; a genius that designed with all the boldness of Angelo, 
and an imagination that coloured with all the felicity of Titian. 

It has been already stated, that Mr. Henry was elected with 
express reference to an opposition to the stamp-act. It was 
not, however, expected by his constituents, or meditated by 
himself, that he should lead the opposition. The addresses of 
the preceding year, made to the king, lords, and commons, in 
which so strong a truth had been stated, as that the stamp-act, 
if persisted in, would reduce the colony to a state of slavery, 
founded a hope that those who had commenced the opposition 
by remonstrance, would continue to give it the eclat of their 
high names, by resistance of a bolder character, if bolder 
should be necessary. Mr. Henry waited, therefore, to file in 
under the first champion that should raise the banner of colo- 
nial liberty. In the meantime, another subject unexpectedly 
occurred to call him up, and it was on this other that he made 
his dehut in the house. 

The incident has been stated to me in the following terms, 
by a gentleman (Mr. Jeflferson) who heard the debate: "The 
gentlemen of this country had, at that time, become deeply in- 
volved in that state of indebtment which has since ended in so 
general a crush of their fortunes. Mr. Robinson, the speaker, 
was also the treasurer, an officer always chosen by the assem- 
bly. He was an excellent man, liberal, friendly, and rich. He 
had been drawn in to lend, on his own account, great sums of 
money to persons of this description; and especially those 
who were of the assembly. 

"He used freely for this purpose the public money, confiding 
for its replacement in his own means, and the securities he had 
taken on those loans. About this time, however, he became 
sensible that his deficit to the public was become so enormous, 
as that a discovery must soon take place, for as yet the public 



46 wirt's life o? 

had no suspicion of it. He devised, therefore, with his friends 
in the assembly, a plan for a public loan-office, to a certain 
amount, from which moneys might be lent on public account, 
and on good landed security to individuals. 

" I find, in Royle's Virginia Gazette of the seventeenth of 
May, seventeen hundred and sixty-five, this proposition for a 
loan-office presented, its advantages detailed, and the plan ex- 
plained. It seems to have been done by a borrowing member, 
from the feeling with which the motives are expressed, and to 
have been preparatory to the intended motion. Between the 
seventeenth and thirtieth, (the latter being the date of Mr. 
Henry's resolutions on the stamp-act,) the motion for a loan- 
office was accordingly brought forward in the house of bur- 
gesses ; and had it succeeded, the debts due to Robinson on 
these loans would have been transferred to the public, and his 
deficit thus completely covered. 

" This state of things, however, was not yet known : but 
Mr. Henry attacked the scheme on other general grounds, in 
that style of bold, grand, and overwhelming eloquence, for 
which he became so justly celebrated afterward. I had been 
intimate with him from the year seventeen hundred and fifty- 
nine and sixty, and felt an interest in what concerned him ; and 
I can never forget a particular exclamation of his in the debate, 
which electrified his hearers. It had been urged, that, from 
certain unhappy circumstances of the colony, men of substan- 
tial property had contracted debts, which, if exacted suddenly, 
must ruin them and their families, but with a little indulgence 
of time, might be paid with ease. 

" ' What, sir !' exclaimed Mr. Henry, in animadverting on 
this, ' is it proposed then to reclaim the spendthrift from his 
dissipation and extravagance, by filling his pockets with 
money V These expressions are indelibly impressed on my 
memory. He laid open with so much energy the spirit of fa- 
vouritism, on which the proposition was founded, and the 
abuses to which it would lead, that it was crushed in its birth. 
He carried with him all the members of the upper counties, 
and left a minority composed merely of the aristocracy of the 
country. From this time his popularity swelled apace ; and 
Mr. Robinson dying the year afterward, his deficit was brought 
to light, and discovered the true object of the proposition."* 

* In reply to this communication, I stated my surprise that no evidence of 
this motion was to be found on the journals of the day, and begged my corres- 
pondent to explain it, which he does very satisfactorily in the following terms : 
"Abortive motions are not always entered on the ionrnals, or rather they are 
rarely entered. It is the modern introduction of yeas and nays which has 
given the means of placing a rejected motion on the journals: and it is likely 



PATRICK HENRY. 47 

The exclamation above quoted by my correspondent as hav- 
ing electrified Mr. Henry's hearers, is a strikiujr specimen of 
one of his great excellences in speaking; which was, the 
power of condensing the substance of a long argument, into 
one short pithy question. The hearer was surprised, in find- 
ing himself brought so suddenly and so clearly to a just con- 
clusion. He could scarcely conceive how it was effected ; and 
eould not fail to regard, with high admiration, the power of that 
intellect which could come at its ends by so short a course ; 
and work out its purposes with the quickness and certainty of 
magic. 

The aristocracy were startled at such a phenomenon from 
the plebeian ranks. They could not be otherwise than indig- 
nant at the presumption of an obscure and unpolished rustic, 
who, without asking the support or countenance of any patron 
among themselves, stood upon his OAvn ground, and bearded 
them even in their den. That this rustic should have been 
able, too, by his single strength, to baffle their whole phalanx 
and put it to rout, was a mortification too humiliating to be 
easily borne. They afiected to ridicule his vicious ana de- 
praved pronunciation, the homespun coarseness of his lan- 
guage, and his hypocritical canting in relation to his humility 
and ignorance. 

But they could not help admiring and envying his wonderful 
gifts ; that thorough knowledge of the human heart which he 
displayed ; that power of throwing his reasoning into short 
and clear aphorisms ; which, desultory as they were, supplied, 
in a great degree, the place of method and logic ; that imagina- 
tion so copious, poetic, and sublime ; the irresistible power 
with which he caused every passion to rise at his bidding; and 
all the rugged might and majesty of his eloquence. From this 
moment, he had no friends on the aristocratic side of the 
house. They looked upon him with envy and with terror. 
They were forced at length to praise his genius ; but that praise 

that the speaker, who, as treasurer, was to be the loan-officer, and had the di- 
rection of the journals, would choose to omit an entry of the motion in this 
case. This accounts sufficiently for the absence of any trace of the motion on 
the journals. There was no suspicion then, (so far at least as I knew,) that 
Mr. Robinson had used the public money in private loans to his friends, and 
that the secret object of this scheme was to transfer those debtors to the pub- 
lic, and thus clear his accounts. I have diliaently examined the names of the 
members on the journals of seventeen hundred and sixty-four, to see if any 
were still living, to whose memory we might recur on this subject ; but I find 
not a single one now remaining in life." This debate must have been in sev- 
enteen hundred and sixty-five instead of seventeen hundred and sixty-four. 
The only surviving member of that yeaj: is Paul Carrington, sen., esq., who 
took his seat in the house after the debate in question. 



48 wirt's life of 

was wrung from them, with painful rehictance. They would 
have denied it if they could. They would have overshadowed 
it ; and did at first try to overshadow it, by magnifying- his 
defects ; but it would have been as easy for them to have eclip- 
sed the splendour of the sun, by pointing to his spots. 

If, however, he had lost one side of the house by his un- 
daunted manner of blowing up this aristocratic project, he had 
made the other side his fast friends. They had listened with ad- 
miration, immixed with envy. Their souls had been struclc with 
amazement and rapture, and thrilled with unspeakable sensa- 
tions which they had never felt before. The man, too, who 
had produced these effects, was one of themselves. This was 
balm to them ; for there is a wide difl'erence between that dis- 
tant admiration, which we pay as a tax, due to long-standing 
merit, in superior .rank, and that throbbing applause which 
rushes spontaneously and warm from the heart, toward a new 
man and an equal. 

There is always something of latent repining, approaching 
to HEsentment, mingled with that respect which is exacted from 
us by rank ; and we feel a secret gratification in seeing it hum- 
bled. In the same proportion, we love the man who has given 
us this gratification, and avenged, as it were, our own past in- 
dignities. Such was precisely the state of feeling which Mr. 
Henry produced, on the present occasion. The lower ranks 
of the house beheld and heard him with gratitude and venera- 
tion. They regarded him as a sturdy and wide-spreading oak, 
beneath whose cool and refreshing shade they might take ref- 
uge from those beams of aristocracy that had played upon them 
so long, with rather an unpleasant heat. 

After this victorious sally upon their party, the former lead- 
ers of the house were not very well-disposed to look with a fa- 
vourable eye on any proposition which he should make. They 
had less idea of contributing to foster the popularity and pam- 
per the power of a man, who seemed born to be their scourge, 
and to drag down their ancient honours to the dust. It was in 
this unpropitious state of things, after having waited in vain for 
some step to be taken on the other side of the house, and 
when the session was within three days of its expected close, 
that Mr. Henry introduced his celebrated resolutions on the 
stamp-act. 

I will not withhold from the reader a note of this transaction 
from the pen of Mr. Henry himself. It is a curiosity, and high- 
ly worthy of preservation. After his death, there was found 
among his papers one sealed, and thus endorsed: "Enclosed 
are the resolutions of the Virginia assembly in seventeen hun- 
dred and sixty-five, concerning the Btamp-act. Let my exeeu- 



PATRICK HENRY. 49 

tors open this paper." Within was found the following copy 
of the resolutions, in Mr. Henry's handwriting: — 

" Resolved, That tlie first adventurers and settlers of this, 
his majesty's colony and dominion, brought with them, and 
transmitted to their posterity, and all other his majesty's sub- 
jects, since inhabiting in this, his majesty's said colony, all the 
privileges, franchises, and immunities, that have at any time 
been held, enjoyed, and possessed by the people of Great 
Britain. 

" Resolved, That by two royal charters, granted by King 
James the first, the colonists, aforesaid, are declared entitled to 
all the privileges, liberties, and immunities of denizens and nat- 
ural-born subjects, to all intents and purposes, as if they had 
been abiding and born within the realm of England. 

"Resolved, That the taxation of the people by themselves, 
or by persons chosen by themselves to represent them, who 
can only know what taxes the people are able to bear, and the 
easiest mode of raising them, and are equally affected by such 
taxes themselves, is the distinguishing characteristic of British 
freedom, and without which the ancient constitution cannot 
subsist. 

" Resolved, That his majesty's liege people of this most an- 
cient colony, have uninterruptedly enjoyed the right of being 
thus governed by their own assembly, in the article of their 
taxes and internal police, and that the same hath never been 
forfeited, or any other way given up, but hath been constantly 
recognised by the king and people of Great Britain. 

" Resolved, therefore. That the general assembly of this col- 
ony have the sole right and power to lay taxes and impositions 
upon the inhabitants of this colony ; and that every attempt to 
vest such power in any person or persons whatsoever, other, 
than the general assembly aforesaid, has a manifest tendency 
to destroy British as well as American freedom." 

On the back of the paper containing those resolutions, is the 
following endorsement, which is also in the handwriting of Mr. 
Henry himself : "The within resolutions passed the house of 
burgesses in May, seventeen hundred and sixty-five. They 
formed the first opposition to the stamp-act, and the scheme of 
taxing America by the British parliament. All the colonies, 
either through fear, or want of opportunity to form an opposi- 
tion, or from influence of some kind or other, had remained si- 
lent. I had been for the first time elected a burgess, a few 
days before, was young, inexperienced, unacquainted with the 
forms of the house, and the members that composed it. Find- 
ing the men of weight averse to opposition, and the commence- 
ment of the tax at hand, and that no person was likely to sten 
D 5 



50 wirt's life 0* 

forth, I determined to venture, and alone, unadvised, and unas- 
sisted, on a blank leaf of an old law-book* wrote the within. 

" Upon offering them to the house, violent debates ensued. 
Many threats were uttered, and much abuse cast on me, by the 
party for submission. After a long and warm contest, the res- 
olutions passed by a very small majority, perhaps of one or two 
only. The alarm spread throughout America with astonishing 
quickness, and the ministerial party were overwhelmned. The 
great point of resistance to British taxation was universally 
established in the colonies. This brought on the war, which 
finally separated the two countries, and gave independence to 
ours. Whether this will prove a blessing or a curse will de- 
pend upon the use our people make of the blessings which a 
gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are wise, they will 
be great and happy. If they are of a contrary character, they 
will be miserable. Righteousness alone can exalt them as a 
nation. 

" Reader ! whoever thou art, remember this ; and in thy 
sphere, practise virtue thyself, and encourage it in others. — 
P. Henry." 

Such is the short, plain, and modest account which Mr. 
Henry has left of this transaction. But other interesting par- 
ticulars have been handed down by tradition, and live still in 
the recollection of one, at least, now in life, as the reader will 
presently see by his own statement. 

The resolutions having been prepared in the manner which 
has been mentioned, were shown by Mr. Henry to two mem- 
bers only, before they were offered to the house ; these were 
John Fleming, a most respectable member for the county of 
Cumberland, and George Johnston, for that of Fairfax.! 

The reader will remark that the first four resolutions, as left 
by Mr. Henry, do little more than reaffirm the principles ad- 
vanced in the address, memorial, and remonstrance of the 
preceding year ; that is, they deny the right assumed by the 

* Judge Tyler says " an old Coke upon Littleton." 

t Judge Winston, on the authority of Mr. Henry himself. The report of 
the day, that Mr. Johnston drew the resolutions, is certainly unfounded. Mr. 
Johnston, now only known from the circumstance of his having seconded Mr. 
Henry's resolutions, is one of those many friends of liberty who are sliding 
fast from the recollection of their country, and who deserve to be rescued from 
oblivion, by a more particular notice than it is in my power to bestow upon 
them. Of Mr. Johnston, I can learn only, that he was a lawyer in the North- 
ern Neck, highly respectable in his profession ; a scholar, distinguished for 
vigour of intellect, cogency of argument, firmness of character, love of order, 
and devotion to the cause of rational liberty — in short, exactly calculated by 
his love of the cause, and the broad and solid basis of his understanding, to 
uphold tl^e magnificent structure of Henry's eloquence. 



PATRICK HENRY. 51 

British parliament, and assert the exclusive right of the col- 
ony to tax itself. There is an important difference, however, 
between those state papers and the resolutions, in the point of 
time and the circumstances under which they were brought 
forward, for the address and other state papers were prepared 
before the stamp-act had passed ; they do nothing more, there- 
fore, than call in question, by a course of respectful and sub- 
missive reasoning, the propriety of exercising the right, before 
it had been exercised ; and they are, moreover, addressed to 
the legislature of Great Britain, hy the ivay of 'prevention^ and 
in a strain of decent remonstrance and argument. 

But at the time when Mr. Henry offered his resolutions, the 
stamp-act had passed ; and the resolutions were intended for 
the people of the colonies. It will also be observed, that the 
fifth resolution, as given by Mr. Henry, contains the bold as- 
sertion, that every attempt to vest the power of taxation over 
the colonies in any person or persons whatsoever, other than 
the general assembly, had a manifest tendency to destroy Brit- 
ish, as well as American freedom ; which was asserting, in 
effect, that the act which had passed was an encroachment on 
the rights and liberties of the people, and amounted to a direct 
charge of tyranny and despotism against the British king, lords, 
and commons. 

It is not wonderful that even the friends of colonial rights, 
who knew the feeble and defenceless situation of this country, 
should be startled at a step so bold and daring. That effect 
was produced ; and the resolutions were resisted, not only by 
the aristocracy of the house, but by many of those who were 
afterward distinguished among the brightest champions of 
American liberty. 

The following is Mr. Jefferson's account of this transaction : 
" Mr. Henry moved and Mr. Johnston seconded these reso- 
lutions successively. They were opposed by Messrs. Ran- 
dolph, Bland, Pendleton, Wythe, and all the old members, 
whose influence in the house had, till then, been unbroken. 
They did it, not from any question of our rights, but on the 
ground that the same sentiments had been, at their preceding 
session, expressed in a more conciliatory form, to which the 
answers were not yet received. But torrents of sublime elo- 
quence from Henry, backed by the solid reasoning of John- 
ston, prevailed. The last, however, and strongest resolution, 
was carried but by a single vote. 

"The debate on it was most bloody. I was then but a stu- 
dent, and stood at the door of communication between the 
house and the lobby (for as yet they e was no gallery) during the 
whole debate and vote ; and I well remember that, after the 



53 wirt's life of 

numbers on the division were toltl and declared from the chair, 
Peyton Randolph (the attorney-general) came out at i.uo door 
where I was standing, and said, as he entered the lobby : ' By 
God, I would have given 500 gumeas for a single vote :' for 
one would have divided the house, and Robinson was in the 
chair, Avho he knew would have negatived the resolution. 

" Mr. Henry left town that evening ; and the next morning, 
before the meeting of the house, Colonel Peter Randolph, then 
of the council, came to the hall of burgesses, and sat at the 
clerk's table till the house-bell rang, thumbing over the vol- 
umes of journals, to find a precedent for expunging a vote of 
the house, which, he said, had taken place while he was a mem- 
ber or clerk of the house, I do not recollect which. I stood by 
him at the end of the table, a considerable part of the time, 
looking on, as he turned over the leaves ; but I do not recollect 
whether he found the erasure. In the meantime, some of the 
timid members, who had voted for the strongest resolution, 
had become alarmed ; and as soon as the house met, a motion 
was made and carried to expunge it from the journals. 

" There being at that day but one printer, and he entirely 
under control of the governor, I do not know that this reso- 
lution ever appeared in print. I write this from memory : but 
the impression made on me at the time was such as to fix the 
facts indelibly in my mind. I suppose the original journal 
Vas among those destroyed by the British, or its obliterated 
face might be appealed to. And here I will state, that Burk's 
statement of Mr. Henry's consenting to withdraw two resolu- 
tions, by way of compromise with his opponents, is entirely 
erroneous." 

The manuscript journal of the day is not to be found ; whethei 
it was suppressed, or casually lost, must remain a matter of 
uncertainty ; it disappeared, however, shortly after the ses- 
sion,* and therefore could not have been among the documents 
destroyed by the British during the revolutionary war, as con- 
jectured by Mr. Jefierson. 

In the interesting fact of the erasure of the fifth resolution, 
Mr. Jefferson is supported by the distinct recollection of Mr. 
Paul Carrington, late a judge of the court of appeals of Vir- 
ginia, and the only surviving member, it is believed, of the 
house of burgesses of seventeen hundred and sixty-five. The 
statement is also confirmed, if indeed further confirmation were 
necessary, by the circumstance, that instead of the five resolu- 

* " The manuscript journal was missing ten years before hostilities between 
the two countries ; therefore could not have been destroyed, as you supposed 
probable." — Paul Cakrington, s8hr 



PATRICK HENRY. 53 

tions, St> solemnly recorded by Mr. Henry, as having passed 
the house, the journal of the day exhibits only the following 
four : — 

" Resolved, That the first adventurers and settlers of this 
his majesty's colony and dominion of Virginia, brought with 
them and transmitted to their posterity, and all others his ma- 
jesty's subjects, since inhabiting in this his majesty's said colo- 
ny, all the liberties, privileges, franchises, and immunities, that 
have at any time been held, enjoyed, and possessed by the peo- 
ple of Great Britain. 

" Resolved, That by two royal charters, granted by King 
James I., the colonists aforesaid are declared entitled to all 
liberties, privileges, and immunities of denizens and natural 
subjects to all intents and purposes, as if they had been abiding 
and born within the realm of England. 

" Resolved, That the taxation of the people, by themselves, 
or by persons chosen by themselves to represent them, who 
can only know what taxes the people are able to bear, or 
tlie easiest method of raising them; and must, themselves, 
be affected by every tax laid on the people, is the only security 
against a burdensome taxation, and the distinguishing character- 
istic of British freedom, without which the ancient constitution 
cannot exist. 

" Resolved, That his majesty's liege people of this his most 
ancient and loyal coiony have, without interruption, enjoyed 
the inestimable right of being governed by such laws re- 
specting their internal polity and taxation, as are derived 
from their own consent, with the approbation of their sover- 
eign, or his substitute ; and that the same hath never been 
forfeited or yielded up, but hath been constantly recognised by 
the kings and people of Great Britain.''^* 

" By these resolutions," says Mr. Jefferson, " and his man- 

* Such are the resolutions, as they were amended and passed by the house, 
with the exception of that which was rescinded on the next day.— Journals ol 
seventeen hundred and sixty-five, page 150. Several historical mistakes havo 
been committed in relation to these resolutions. Judge Marshall, in his Life 
of Washington, (vol. 2d, note 4th, of the appendix,) gives an erroneous copy 
of them, from the book called Prior Documents ; in this, he is set right by the 
journals : he represents six as having been offered, and two rejected ; his au- 
thority for this, again, is the Prior Documents : but he is contradicted by Mr. 
Henry, himself, who represents five only as having been offered and passed, 
and Mr. Henry's written statement accords with the clear and strong recollec- 
tion both of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Carrington. 

Mr. Burk gives the same erroneous copy with Judge Marshall, and adds to 
them several mistakes of his own : he says the resolution!? passed, by a large 
majority, forty only having voted ugainst them. Mr. Burk did not know the 
number of the members, or he would have known that a vote of forty, in the 
negative, would not have left a large majority in favour of the resolutions. 
But we have the authority of Mr. Henry himself, (as we have seen,) of Mr. 

5* 



54 , wirt's life of 

ner of supporting tliem, Mr. Henry took the lead out of the 
hands of those who had, theretofore, guided the proceedings 
of the house ; that is to say, of Pendleton, Wythe, Bland, Ean- 
dolph." It was, indeed, the measure which raised him to the 
zenith of his glory. He had never before had a subject which 
entirely matched his genius, and was capable of drawing out 
all the powers of his mind. It was remarked of him through- 
out his life, that his talents never failed to rise with the occa- 
sion, and in proportion with the resistance which he had to 
encounter. The nicety of the vote, on his last resolution, 
proves that this was not a .time to hold in reserve any part of 
his forces. 

It was, indeed, an Alpine passage, under circumstances even 
more unpropitious than those of Hannibal ; for he had not only 
to fight, hand to hand, the powerful party who were already in 
possession of the heights, but at the same instant to cheer and 
animate the timid band of followers, that were trembling, and 
fainting, and drawing back below him. It was an occasion 
that called upon him to put forth all his strength, and he did 
put it forth, in such a manner as man never did before. 

The cords of argument with which his adversaries frequently 
flattered themselves that they had bound him fast, became pack- 
threads in his hands. He burst them with as much ease as the 
unshorn Samson did the bands of the Philistines. He seized 
the pillars of the temple, shook them terribly, and seemed to 
threaten his opponents with ruin. It was an incessant storm 
of lightning and thunder, which struck them aghast. The faint- 
hearted gathered courage from his countenance, and cowards 
became heroes while they gazed upon his exploits. 

Jefferson, and of Mr. Carrington, for saying that the resolutions were carried 
by a majority of 07ic only ; on what authority Mr. Burk speaks, we are not in- 
formed. His whole account of Mr. Henry's proposal on the next day, to se- 
cede, and of his finally giving up two resolutions, for the sake of unanimity, is 
contradicted again by Mr. Henry, Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. Cairington ; there is 
no such statement in the papers of the day, and the author does not conde- 
scend to give us his authority. Mr. Burk's skeleton of Mr. Henry's speech^ 
on that occasion, is believed to be equally apocryphal ; the author of these 
sketches has not been able to procure a single authentic trace of that speech, 
except the anecdote presently given in the text. 

Mr. Burk concludes his account of this affair thus: "Struck with the 
alarming tendency of these proceedings, the governor suddenly dissolved the 
assembly," &c. — Vol. 3d, page 310. In opposition to this statement, we are 
told by Mr. Henry himself, that when he offered his resolutions, the session 
was near its regular close ; and the journals prove the fact to have been so. 
Mr. Henry left town for home on the evening of the day on which his resolu- 
tions were adopted ; it was on the next day (consequently in his absence) that 
the motion to rescind was made ; and the printed journals show that day and 
the day following to have been occupied with the usual business whkh close» 
a legislative session. 



FATRICK HENRr. 55 

It was in the midst of this magnificent debate, while he was 
descanting on the tyranny of the obnoxious act, that he ex- 
claimed in a voice of thunder, and with the look of a god : — • 
*' Cesar had his Brutus — Charles the First, his Cromwell — and 
George the Third " — (" Treason," cried the speaker — " Treason, 
treason !" echoed from every part of the house. It was one of 
those trying moments which is decisive of character. Henry 
faltered not for an instant ; but rising to a loftier attitude, and 
lixing on the speaker an eye of the most determined fire, he 
finished his sentence with the firmest emphasis) — '•'•may 'profit 
ly their example. If this be treason, make the most of it."* 

This was the only expression of defiance Avhich escaped him 
during the debate. He was, throughout life, one of the most 
perfectly and uniformly decorous speakers that ever took the 
floor of the house. He was respectful even to humility ; and 
the provocation must be gross indeed which would induce him 
to notice it. Yet when he did notice it, better were it for the 
man never to have been born, than to fall into the hands of such 
an adversary. One lash from his scourge was infamy for life ; 
his look of anger or contempt was almost death. 

After this debate, there was no longer a question among the 
body of the people, as to Mr. Henry's being the first statesman 
and orator in Virginia. Those, indeed, whose ranks he had 
scattered, and whom he had thrown into the shade, still tried 
to brand him with the names of decl^mer and demagogue. 
But this was obviously the effect of envy and mortified pride. 
A mere declaimer and demagogue could never have gained, 
much less have kept for more than thirty years, that ground 
which Mr. Henry held ; with a people, too, so cool, judicious, 
firm, and virtuous, as those who achieved the American revo- 
lution. 

From the period of which we have been speaking, Mr. Hen- 
ry became the idol of the people of Virginia ; nor was his name 
confined to his native state. His light and heat were seen and 
felt throughout the continent; and he was everywhere regard- 
ed as the great champion of colonial liberty. 

The impulse thus given by Virginia, was caught by the other 
colonies. Her resolutions were everywhere adopted with pro- 
gressive variations. The spirit of resistance became bolder 

* I had frequently heard the above anecdote of the cry of treason, but with 
such variations of the concluding words, that I began to doubt whether the 
whole might not be fiction. With a view to ascertain the truth, therefore, I 
submitted it to Mr. Jefferson, as it had been given to me by Judge Tyler, and 
this is his answer : " I well remember the cry of treason, the pause of Mr. 
Henry at the name of George III., and the presence of mind with which he 
closed his sentence, and baffled the charge vociferated." The incident, there- 
fore, becomes authentic history. 



56 wirt's life of 

and bolder, until the whole continent was in a flame ; and by 
the first of November, when the stamp act was, according to 
sts provisions, to have taken effect, its execution had become ut- 
terly impracticable,"* 



CHAPTER III. 

tlepeal of the Stamp-Act — Session of 1766 — Mr. Henry's Character as a 
Lawyer — Anecdote of Major Scott — State of Feeling in the British Parlia- 
ment — Remonstrance of the Massachusetts Legislature — Obnoxious Charac- 
ter of the Soldiery stationed in America— Collision of the People in New 
"■'York with the Troops — Farther Encroachments of Parliament — Opposition 
of Mas-sachusetts to the new Duties — Dissolution of the Colonial Legisla- 
tures — Appointment of Corresponding Committees — Notice of Mr. Carr — 
Sketch of the Virginia Legislature of 1773 — Mr. Henry's Views on the 
Issue of the Contest with Great Britain — Dissolution of the House of Bur- 
gesses — Subsequent Proceedings — Delegates appointed — Mr. Henry appoint- 
ed a Deputy to a Congress of the Colonies. — The Congress meets at Phil- 
adelphia. 

At the opening of the next session, the speaker announced 
the repeal of the stamp-act ; and the house of burgesses, in a 
paroxysm of feeling, voted a statue to the king, and an obelisk 
to the British patriots by whose exertions the repeal had been 
elTected. But before Ihese monuments of national gratitude 
could be executed the effervescence subsided ; and on the ninth 
of December, seventeen hundred and sixty-six, the bill which 
had been prepared for that purpose, Avas postponed to the first 
day of the next session ; after which, we hear of it no more. 

At the session of seventeen hundred and sixty-six, a question 
of great interest in those days, and one of real importance to 
the colony, came on to be discussed in the house of burgesses. 
Mr. Robinson, who had so long held the joint offices of speak- 
er and treasurer, was now dead. The general fact of his de- 
linquency as treasurer was understood, although the sum was 
not yet ascertained ; and that delinquency, whatever it might 
be, was alleged to have arisen principally from loans made to 

* The chronicles of the day exhibit, in a manner very curious and interest- 
ing, the progress of these feelings. We have already given a specimen of the 
drooping spirit of the Pennsylvania Gazette, on the first annunciation of the 
stamp-act ; but after Mr. Henry had touched with his match the train of 
American courage, its scintillations were seen, sparkling and flashing, on every 
page of this paper. Thus, in the paper of June twentieth, seventeen hun- 
dred and seventy-five : "We learn from the northward, that the stamp-act 
is to take effect in America on All Saints' day, the first of November next. 
In the year seventeen hundred and fifty-five, on the first of November, hap- 
pened that dreadful and memorable earthquake which destroyed the city o! 
Lisbon." 



PATRICK HENRY. 57 

members of the house of burgesses. As the speaker, although 
elected in the first instance by the house, could not act until 
approved by the governor, and, when so approved, was in office 
for seven years, re-eligible indefinitely — and, as in the recent 
instance of Mr. Robinson, it had been discovered, that an office 
so held was too apt to generate a devotion to the purposes of 
the British court — it was considered by the patriots in the 
house, as a measure of sound policy, to take out of the hands 
of the speaker so formidable an engine of corruption and pow- 
er as the treasury of the colony.* 

A motion was therefore made to separate the office of treas- 
urer from the speaker's chair, which was supported by ?T', 
Henry with his usual ability. An arduous struggle enst fi 
Innovations, however correct in themselves, never fail to star 
tie those who have grown gray in a veneration for the existing 
order of things. They fancy that they see in every important 
change an indirect blow at the established government, and at 
the foundations of their own property. This union of ihe 
speaker's chair with the office of treasurer, was one of those 
errors in policy which time had consecrated, and it required a 
hand both steady and skilful to remove the veil and expose its 
deformity. That hand was furnished by Mr. Henry. 

The union of boldness and decency which composed his char- 
acter, of decisive energy in the support of his own opinions, 
and respectful tenderness toward those of others, fitted him pe- 
culiarly for the discharge of this duty. The house admired, on 
this occasion, the facility with which he could adapt himself 
to any subject. He had that foundation of strong natural sense, 
without which genius is a misfortune ; an instinctive accuracy 
of judgment, which always proportioned his eflTorts to the occa- 
sion. He was never guilty of the ridiculous and common error 
among young members, of attempting to force the subject be- 
yond its nature — of swelling trifles into consequence, and work- 
ing the ocean into tempest, 

" To waft a feather, or to drown a fly." 

It is almost superfluous to add, that such a cause, in the hands 
of such an advocate, did not fail of success. The motion for 
separating the two offices being carried, a committee was ap- 

* A correspondent furnishes the foUowingr note on this passage : " There 
was but one clear and sound bottom on which the separation of the chair and 
the treasury was decided. The legislature made all the levies of money pay- 
able into the hands of their speaker, over whom they had control. The only 
hold the governor had on him was, a negative on his appointment as speaker 
at every new election, which amounted, consequently, to a negative on bim as 
treasurer, and disposed him, so far, to be obsequious to the governor.'* 



58 wirt's life of 

pointed to examine the accounts of the late treasurer, and their 
report disclosed an enormous deficit, exceeding a hundred thou- 
sand pounds. 

On the separation of the offices of speaker, and treasurer, 
Peyton Randolph, the attorney-general, was elected to the 
chair ; and Robert C. Nicholas, an eminent lawyer and a most 
virtuous man, to the office of treasurer. 

After having tried his strength for several years on the legis- 
lative floor, against some of the brightest champions of the bar, 
Mr. Henry came, in the year seventeen hundred and sixty-nine, 
to the bar itself of the general court. " The profits of his prac- 
tice, theretofore," says my informant. Judge Winston, " must 
have been very moderate. For about this time, he informed 
me that he thought his property was not worth more than fif- 
teen hundred pounds ; adding, that if he could only make it 
double that sum, he should be entirely content." 

At this bar, he entered into competition with all the first legal 
characters in the colony, some of whom had been educated at 
the Temple. Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Wythe have been already 
mentioned: but, in addition to these, he had to encounter Mr. 
John Randolph, Mr. Thompson Mason, Mr. Robert C. Nicho- 
las, Mr. Mercer, Mr. Blair, and Mr. Jefferson ; all of them 
masters of the learning of their profession, and all of them men 
of pre-eminent abilities. 

It cannot be expected from Mr. Henry's legal preparation, 
that he was able to contend with these gentlemen on a mere 
question of law. He wanted that learning whose place no 
splendour of genius can supply to the lawyer ; and he wanted 
those habits of steady and persevering application, without 
which that learning is not to be acquired. It is said, indeed, 
that he was wofully deficient as a lawyer ; so little acquainted 
with the fundamental principles of his profession, and so little 
skilled in that system of artificial reasoning on which the com- 
mon law is built, as not to be able to see the remote bearings 
of the reported cases ; and hence, it has been said, that it hap- 
pened with him not unfrequently, whenever he did attempt to 
argue a question of law, to furnish authorities destructive to his 
own cause. 

Yet he never did and never could vanquish his aversion to 
the systematic study of the law. On questions turning on the 
laws of nations, and even on the maritime law, whose basis is 
natural reason and justice, his vigour of mind made him occa- 
sionally very great. One of my correspondents, for example, 
relates to me an instance of his appearing in the court of admi- 
ralty, under the regal government, in behalf of a Spanish cap- 
tain, whose vessel and cargo had been libelled. A gentleman 



PATRICK HENRY. 59 

who was present, and who was very well qualified to judge, 
was heard to declare, after the trial was over, that he never 
neard a more eloquent or argumentative speech in his life; that 
Mr. Henry was on that occasion greatly superior to Mr. Pen- 
dleton, Mr. Mason, or any other counsel who spoke to the sub- 
ject ; and that he was astonished how Mr. Henry could have 
acquired such a knowledge of the maritime law, to which, it 
was believed, he had never before turned his attention. 

But this special preparation on a given subject, and that sub- 
ject, too, depending on the liberal and equitable principles of 
the maritime law, is not at all at variance with the report of 
his inefficiency, on questions to be decided by the common law 
merely. The power of arguing questions, of the latter descrip- 
tion to advantage, requires the mind, in the first place, to be 
deeply imbued with that peculiar spirit of reasoning which 
reigns throughout the whole system of the common law ; and, 
in the next, it requires a cool and clear accuracy of thinking, 
and an elaborate exactness and nicety in the deduction of 
thought,' to which Mr. Henry's early and inveterate habits of 
indolence, as well as the sublime and excursive fervour of his 
genius, were altogether hostile. 

It was on questions before a jury, that he was in his natural 
element. There, his intimate knowledge of human nature, and 
the rapidity as well as justness of his inferences, from the flit- 
ting expressions of the countenance, as to what was passing in 
the hearts of his hearers, availed him fully. The jury might be 
composed of entire strangers, yet he rarely failed to know them, 
man by man, before the evidence was closed. There was n» 
studied fixture of features that could long hide the charac- 
ter from his piercing and experienced view. The slightest un- 
guarded turn of countenance, or motion of the eye, let him at 
once into the soul of the man whom he was observing. 

Or, if he doubted whether his conclusions were correct, from 
the exhibitions of countenance during the narration of the evi- 
dence, he had a mode of playing a prelude, as it were, upon 
the jury, in his exordium, which never failed to " wake into 
life each silent string," and show him the whole compass as 
well as pitch of the instrument ; and, indeed, (if we may be- 
lieve all the concurrent accounts of his exhibitions in the general 
court,) the most exquisite performer that ever " swept the 
sounding lyre" had not more a sovereign mastery over its pow- 
ers, than Mr. Henry had over the springs of feeling and thought 
that belong to a jury. There was a delicacy, a taste, a felicity 
in his touch, that was perfectly original, and without a rival. 

His style of address, on these occasions, is said to have re- 
sembled very much that of the scriptures. It was strongly 



60 wirt's life of 

marked with the same simplicitj^ the same energy, the same 
pathos. He sounded no alarm ; he made no parade, to put the 
jury on their guard. It was all so natural, so humble, so un- 
assuming, that they were carried imperfectly along, and attuned 
to his purpose, until some master-touch dissolved them into 
tears. His language of passion was perfect. There was no 
word " of learned length or thundering sound," to break the 
charm. It had almost all the stillness of solitary thinking. It 
was a sweet revery, a delicious trance. 

His voice, too, had a wonderful effect. He had a singular 
power of infusing it into a jury, and mixing its notes with their 
nerves, in a manner M'hich it is impossible to describe justly ; 
but which produced a thrilling excitement, in the happiest con- 
cordance with his designs. No man knew so well as he did 
what kind of topics to urge to their understandings ; nor what 
kind of simple imagery to present to their hearts. His eye, 
which he kept riveted upon them, assisted the process of fas- 
cination, and at the same time informed him what theme to 
press, or at what instant to retreat, if by rare accident he touch- 
ed an unpropitious string. And then he had such an exuber- 
ance of appropriate thoughts, of apt illustrations, of apposite 
images, and such a melodious and varied roll of the happiest 
words, that the hearer was never wearied by repetition, and 
never winced from an apprehension that the intellectual treas- 
ures of the speaker would be exhausted.* 

The defence of criminal causes was his great professional 
forte. It seems that the eighth day of the general court was 
formerly set apart for criminal business. Mr. Henry made 

* A striking example of this witchery of his eloquence, even on common 
subjects, was related by a very respectable gentleman, the late Major Joseph 
Scott, the marshal of this state. This gentleman had been summoned, at 
great inconvenience to his private affairs, to attend as a witness a distant court, 
in which Mr. Henry practised. The cause which had carried him thither hav- 
ing been disposed of, he was setting out in great haste to return, when the 
sheriff summoned him to serve on a jury. This cause was represented as a 
complicated and important one ; so important as to have enlisted in it all the 
most eminent members of the bar. 

He was therefore alarmed at the prospect of a long detention, and made an 
unavailing effort with the court to get himself discharged from the jury. Ho 
was compelled to take his seat. When his patience had been nearly exhaust- 
ed by the previous speakers, Mr. Henry rose to conclude the cause, and having 
much matter to answer, the major stated that he considered himself a prisoner 
for the evening, if not for the night. But, to his surprise, Mr. Henry appear- 
ed to have consumed not more than fifteen minutes in the reply ; and he 
would scarcely believe his own watch, or those of the other jurymen, when 
they informed him that he had in reality been speaking upward of two hours. 
So powerful was the charm by which he could bind the senses of his hearera, 
and make even the most impatient unconscious of the lapse of time. 



PATRICK HENRtr. 61 

little or no figure during the civil days of the court; but on 
the eighth day he was the monarch of the bar. These causes 
brought him into direct collision with Mr. John Randolph, who 
had now succeeded Peyton as the attorney-general. 

Mr. Randolph, it has been remarked, was, in person and 
manners among the most elegant gentlemen in the colony, and 
in his profession one of the most splendid ornaments of the bar. 
He was a polite scholar, as well as a profound lawyer, and his 
eloquence also was of a high order. His voice, action, style, 
were stately, and uncommonly impressive ; but gigantic as he 
was in relation to other men, he was but a pigmy, when op- 
posed in a criminal trial to the arch magician, Henry. In 
those cases Mr. Henry was perfectly irresistible. He adapted 
himself, without effort, to the character of the cause : seized 
with the quickness of intuition, its defensible point, and never 
permitted the jury to lose sight of it. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds has said of Titian, that, by a few 
strokes of his pencil, he knew how to mark the image and 
character of whatever object he attempted ; and produced by 
this means a truer representation than any of his predecessors, 
who finished every hair. In like manner, Mr. Henry, by a few 
master-strokes upon the evidence, could in general stamp upon 
the cause whatever image or character he pleased ; and con- 
vert it into tragedy or comedy, at his sovereign will, and with 
a power which no efforts of his adversary could counteract. 

He never wearied the jury by a dry and minute analysis of 
the evidence ; he did not expend his strength in finishing the 
hairs ; he produced all his high effect by those rare master- 
touches, and by the resistless skill with which, in a very few 
words, he could mould and colour the promment facts of a 
cause to his purpose. He had wonderful address, too, in lead- 
ing off the minds of his hearers from the contemplation of un- 
favourable points, if at any time they were too stubborn to 
yield to his power of transformation. He beguiled the hearer 
so far from them, as to diminish them by distance, and soften, 
if not entirely cast into shade, their too strong natural colours. 
At this distance, too, he had a better opportunity of throwing 
upon them a false light, by an apparently casual ray of refraction 
from other points in the evidence, whose powers no man bet- 
ter knew how to array and concentrate, in order to disguise or 
eclipse an obnoxious fact. 

It required a mind of uncommon vigilance, and most intracta- 
ble temper, to resist this charm with which he decoyed away 
liis hearers ; it demanded a rapidity of penetration which is 
rarely, if ever, to be found in the jury-box, to detect the intel- 
lectual juggle by which he spread his nets around them; it 

6 



6t8 wirt's life of 

called for a stubbornness ahd obduracy of soul which do 
not exist, to sit unmoved under the pictures of horror, or of 
pity which started from his canvass. 

They might resolve, if they pleased, to decide the cause 
against him, and to disregard everything which he could urge 
in the defence of his client. But it was all in vain. Some 
feint, in an unexpected direction, threw them off their guard, 
and they were gone ; some happy phrase, burning from the 
soul ; some image fresh from Nature's mint, and bearing her 
own beautiful and genuine impress, struck them with delight- 
ful surprise, and melted them into conciliation; and concilia- 
tion toward Mr. Henry, was victory inevitable. In short, he 
understood the human character so perfectly ; knew so well 
all its strength and all its weaknesses, together with every path 
and by-way which winds around to the citadel of the best forti- 
fied heart and mind, that he never failed to take them, either 
by stratagem or storm. Hence he was, beyond doubt, the 
ablest defender of criminals in Virginia, and will probably never 
be equalled again. 

It has been observed, that Mr. Henry's knowledge of the 
common law was extremely defective ; but his attendance upon 
the general court was calculated to cure that defect, in a con- 
siderable degree. All legal questions of magnitude or diffi- 
culty came before that tribunal, either originally or by appeal ; 
and he had continual opportunities of hearing them discussed 
in the ablest manner, by the brightest luminaries of the Ameri- 
can bar. 

His was a mind on which nothing was lost ; on which no 
useful seed could be cast without shooting into all the luxuri- 
ance of which its nature was susceptible. Thus improving 
every hint, and ramifying every principle which was brought 
into his view, there is reason to believe that a few years must 
have made him not only a master of the general canons of 
property, but of the modifications and exceptions of more fre- 
quent occurrence, by which those canons are restrained and 
governed. 

In support of this conclusion, I find that in January, seven- 
teen hundred and seventy-three, Robert C. Nicholas, who had 
enjoyed the first practice at the bar, and who, by virtue of his 
office of treasurer, was forced to relinquish that practice, com- 
mitted, by a public advertisement, his unfinished business to 
Mr. Henry ; a step which a man so remarkably scrupulous in 
the discharge of every moral duty would not have taken, had 
there been any incompetency on the part of his substitute. 

The British ministry, however, did not permit Mr. Henry to 
waste himself in forensic exertions. The joy of the Amer- 



PATRICK HENRY. 63 

icans, on the repeal of the stamp-act, was very short-lived. 
That measure had not been, on the part of the British parlia- 
ment, a voluntary sacrifice to truth and right. The ministry 
and their friends disavowed this ground ; and were forward on 
every occasion, to convince the colonies that they had nothing 
to expect, either from the clemency or the magnanimity of 
the British cabinet. 

Thus on a question of supplies for the army, in the session 
of parliament of seventeen hundred and sixty-six and seven, 
a motion was made in the house of commons, that the revenues 
arising and to arise in America, be applied to subsisting the 
troops now there, and those other regiments which it is 'pro- 
posed to send; in support of which, that brilliant political 
meteor, Charles Townsend, urged, among other things, " the 
propriety of more troops being sent to America, and of their 
being quartered in the large towns^ 

He said, that he had a plan preparing, which he would lay be- 
fore the house, /or the raising of supplies in America. That 
the legislative authority of Great Britain extended to every col- 
ony in every particular. That the distinction between internal 
and external taxes was nonsense ; and that he voted for the 
repeal of the stamp-act, not because it was not a good act, but 
because, at that time, there appeared a propriety in repealing 
it. He added, that he repeated the sentence, that the galleries 
might hear him, and after that, he did not expect to have his 
statue erected in America : in all which, Mr. Grenville joined 
him fully. This temper soon manifested itself in open acts, 
and turned the late joy of the colonies into mourning. 

The first obnoxious measure was a stern demand of satisfac- 
tion from the legislatures of the colonies, for the injuries which 
had been done to the stamp-officers and their adherents. The 
legislature of Massachusetts, of whom this demand was first 
made, very respectfully, and with good reason, questioned the 
propriety and justice of taxing the whole colony for the ex- 
cesses of a few individuals, which they had neither prompted 
nor approved ; for the sake of peace, however, and in the spirit 
of accommodation, that satisfaction was given ; but they an- 
nexed to their vote of satisfaction a grant of pardon to the 
rioters ; and, in England, according to the usual courtesy of 
that country, nothing was said of the satisfaction, while the 
pardon was treated as a most insolent and impudent usurpation 
of the royal authority. 

The next step was that suggested by Mr. Townsend, of quar- 
tering large bodies of troops upon the chief towns in the col- 
onies, and demanding of the several colonial legislatures a pro- 
vision for their comfortable support and accommodation. A 



64 • wirt's life of 

measure more replete with exasperation could scarcely have 
been devised. The very presence of those myrmidons was an 
insult ; for it was a direct reflection on the fidelity of the col- 
onists. Their object was perfectly understood : it was to curb 
the just and honourable spirit of the people ; to dragoon them 
into submission to the parliamentary claim of taxation, and 
reduce them to the condition of vassals, governed by the right 
of conquest. The rudeness of the soldiery, too, was well cal- 
culated to keep up and increase the irritation, which their pres- 
ence alone would have been sufficient to excite. 

In Boston, they were in the habit of stopping the most re- 
spectable citizens in the streets, and compelling them to answer 
insulting inquiries, or committing them to confinement on their 
refusal, assigning, as the ground of their conduct, that the town 
was a garrisoned town. In New York, they provoked a con- 
test with the people, by making war upon a liberty-pole, which 
was the first object of their earthly devotions, and which the 
soldiers continually destroyed or attempted to destroy, as soon 
as it could be replaced. And, as if all this insult and humil- 
iation were not enough, the colonies were to be constrained to 
tax themselves, to foster and cherish those instruments of their 
degradation. 

The legislature of New York, in a tone at least sufficiently 
submissive for the occasion, and on the false ground of the in- 
ability of the colony, begged to be excused from making the 
provision. For this high offisnce, the legislative power of that 
colony was abolished by act of parliament, until they should 
submit to make the provision which was required : and they 
did submit. 

A body of British troops, alleged to have been driven by 
stress of weather into Boston, in the recess of the colonial 
legislature, had been provided for out of the public moneys, by 
the governor and his council. The legislature met shortly 
afterward, and remonstrated against this unconstitutional ap- 
propriation, with that Roman firmness and dignity which mark- 
ed the character of Massachusetts in every stage of the contest. 
But Governor Bernard, highly indignant at what he affigcted to 
consider as presumption, made such a communication upon the 
subject to the British court, as could have had, and could have 
been designed to have, no other effisct than to widen the breach, 
and inflame more highly those animosities which already re- 
quired no new aggravation. 

These military preparations were well understood to be the 
harbingers of some unconstitutional act, the execution of which 
they were necessary to enforce. Why those preparations were 
restricted to the northern states, and more particularly to Mas- 



PATRICK HENRY. 65 

sachusetts, has never been satisfactorily explained. There 
was no colony which resisted with more firmness and con- 
stancy the pretensions of the British parliament than that of 
Virginia ; yet no military force was thought necessary, during 
the lives of the governors Fauquier and Bottetourt, to keep 
down the spirit of rebellion in this colony. 

A solution of the difficulty may perhaps be found in the 
character of the different governors. Virginia had the good 
fortune, during this period, to be governed by enlightened and 
amiable men, who saw and did justice to the motives and meas- 
ure of resistance which was meditated ; who were both able 
and willing to distinguish between reason and force, between 
remonstrance and rebellion ; who perceived with pleasure, the 
spirit of genuine and unaffected loyalty and affection for the 
parent-couatry, which mingled itself with every complaint ; 
and who, in their communications to the British court, were 
disposed rather " to extenuate," than " to set down aught in 
malice." Whereas Bernard, the governor of Massachusetts, 
was the fit instrument and apt representative of the masters 
whom he served : for he had all their pride and unfeeling inso- 
lence, and seems to have enjoyed a kind of fiend-like pleasure, 
in rendering his province hateful at home, by the most viru- 
lent misrepresentations; and in drawing down upon her the ac- 
cumulated curses and oppressions of the parent-country.* 

These preparatory steps having been taken, an act of parlia- 
ment was passed, imposing certain duties on glass, white and 
red lead, painters' colours, tea, and paper, imported into the 
colonies. This act was to take effect on the twentieth of No- 
vember, seventeen hundred and sixty-seven ; and, to insure its 
operation, another act authorized the king to appoint a board 
of trade to reside in the colonies, and to instruct them at his 
pleasure and without limits, as to the mode of executing their 
duties under this law. A commission accordingly issued, by 
which the commissioners were armed with a power of search 
and seizure, at their discretion ; with authority to call for aid 
upon the naval and military establishments within the colony ; 
and with an exemption from prosecution or responsibility be- 

* Extract of a letter, dated London, June fifth, seventeen hundred and 
seventy : *' The people of England now curse Governor Bernard, as bitterly 
as those of America. Bernard was drove out of the Smyrna coffee-house, 
not many days since, by General Oglethorpe, who told him he was a dirty, 
factious scoundrel, and smelled cursed strong of the hangman ; that he had 
better le^ve the room, as unworthy to mix with gentlemen of character, but 
that he would give him the satisfaction of following him to the door, had ho 
any thing to reply. The governor left the house like a guilty coward." — Perm' 
tylvania. Gazette, August 30th, 1770. 

E 6* 



06 wirt's life of 

fore any of the Jcing^s courtsy for whatsoever they might do, 
by any construction of their com'tnission. 

Another measure which gave great offence to the colonies, 
was the establishment of a board of admiralty, with extensive 
powers, supported by large salaries independent of the colo- 
nies, yet drawn from the revenues compulsorily levied upon 
them ; and the appointment, also, of common law judges, to be 
paid by the crown out of the revenues of the colony, and to 
hold their offices during the king's pleasure. 

To all these outrages the legislatures of the colonies answer- 
ed by petitions, memorials, remonstrances, and letters, address- 
ed to the friends of colonial liberty in England ; blending, with 
the strongest professions of loyalty, the expression of their 
hope, that those obnoxious measures would be reconsidered 
and reversed, and the colonies protected in their ancient and 
unalienable rights. In reply, they received from the kindest 
of their English friends, only exhortations to patience under 
their sufferings ; by the court-party, menaces and anathemas 
"werebrandishedover their heads; and the commissioners of the 
revenue, together with their auxiliaries, the naval and military 
officers and soldiery, continued to outrage and insult them, both 
in their persons and property. 

The people of Massachusetts, with the view of frustrating 
the new revenutf-bill, entered into an association, by which 
they bound themselves not to import from Great Britain, or use 
any of the articles taxed ; and included in the resolution every 
article of British manufacture which was not of the first and 
most indispensable necessity. The legislature of that state 
also resolved on a circular-letter to their sister-colonies, invi- 
ting their concurrence and co-operation toward procuring re- 
lief, in a constitutional way, from the grievances under which 
they were all suffering. 

This measure having been reported by Governor Bernard, 
wdth his usual embellishments, to the Earl of Hilsborough, the 
British minister for the American department, that minister re- 
quired the governor to demand of the legislature an immediate 
rescission of their resolution, on pain of their being forthwith 
dissolved. They refused to rescind, and Avere dissolved ac- 
cordingly. The same minister also addressed a circular-letter 
to the governors of the other colonies, exhorting them to crush 
this correspondence and concert among the colonial legisla- 
tures in the bud, by exacting from them an assurance that they 
would not answer the circular of Massachusetts. They refu- 
sed to give such assurance, and were in their turn dissolved. 

These violent measures, however, produced an effect very 
different from that which was expected to flow from them- 



PATRICK HENRY. 67 

The dissolution of their legislatures swelled the catalogue of 
their wrongs, and ministered additional fuel to the resentments of 
the people. The non-importation agreement became general ; 
end, by jneans of committees established in the several colonies, 
its execution was guarded with a vigilance which could not be 
eluded. A breach of it was infamy, inevitable and unpardona- 
ble. Its observance was a badge of honour, by which the pa- 
triot-colonist was proud to be distinguished. 

The piivation was, indeed, in many respects severe, but the 
sufferers wore upheld by that kind of holy fortitude which ena- 
oled the Chiistian martyrs, to smile amid the flames and to 
triumph, even in the agonies of death. Every grade of society, 
all ages, and both sexes, kindled in this sacred competition of 
patriotism. The ladies of the colonies, in the dawn, and 
throughout the whole progress of the revolution, shone with 
pre-eminent lustre in this war of fortitude and self-denial. They 
renounced, without a sigh, the use of the luxuries and even of 
the comforts to which they had been accustomed ; and felt a 
nobler pride in appearing dressed in the simple productions of 
iheir own looms, than they had ever experienced from glitter- 
'ng in the brightest ornaments of the East. 

The British court looked upon this trial of virtuous fortitude 
tv^ith surly and inexorable rigour. They seemed determined 
io carry the point, at every hazard. The sufferings of their 
own merchants and manufacturers were forgotten, in the bar- 
oarous pleasure with which they contemplated the sufferings of 
the colonists. It is not in human nature to continue long to 
return good for evil, affection for cruelty. The admiration and 
devotion of the colonies for the parent-country became gradu- 
ally weaker. This transition of feeling is most interestingly 
marked in the chronicles of the day. The epithets, "our kind 
and indulgent mother," with which she was wont to be greeted, 
were progressively changed into " unnatural parent — cruel 
stepmother — proud, merciless oppressor — haughty, unfeeling, 
and unrelenting tyrant." 

This state of feeling was aggravated by the collisions which 
were perpetually occurring between the king's soldiery and the 
people of the towns in which they were quartered. The streets 
of New York and of Boston were the theatres of continual riots, 
ending almost invariably in blood, and not unfrequently in 
death. The newspapers of the day teem with the detail of 
scenes of this sort ; and from the effect which they produce on 
the reader at this distance of time, it is not very difficult to con- 
ceive what must have been their operation on the people of that 
day, already goaded to madness by previous injuries. 

It is not my purpose to record the series of measures which let) 



68 wirt's life of 

to the dismemberment of the Bsitish empire. This is the func- 
tion of the historian. My business is only with Mr. Henry; 
and, for my purpose, nothing more is necessary than to recall 
the general character of the contest, for the purpose of showing 
the part which he bore in it. The revolution may be truly 
said to have commenced with his resolutions in seventeen hun- 
dred and sixty-five. 

From that period not an hour of settled peace had existed 
between the two countries. It is true, that the eruption pro- 
duced by the stamp-act had subsided with its repeal ; and the 
people had resumed their ancient settlements and occupations ; 
but there was no peace of the heart or of the mind. The rum- 
bling of the volcano was still audible, and the smoke of the cra- 
ter continually ascended, mingled not unfrequently with those 
flames and masses of ignited matter which announced a new 
and more terrible explosion. 

These were *' the times that tried the souls of men ;" and 
never, in any country or in any age, did there exist a race of 
men whose souls were better fitted to endure the trial. Pa- 
tient in suffering, firm in adversity, calm and collected amid the 
dangers which pressed around ihem, cool in council, and brave 
in battle, they were worthy of the cause, and the cause was 
worthy of them. 

The house of burgesses of Virginia, which had led the oppo- 
sition to the stamp-act, kept their high ground during the whole 
of the ensuing contest. Mr. Henry, having removed again 
from Louisa to his native county, in the year seventeen hun- 
dred and sixty-seven or sixty-eight, continued a member of the 
public councils till the close of the revolution ; and there could 
be no want of boldness in any body of which he was a member. 

The session of seventeen hundred sixty-eight or sixty-nine, 
was marked by a set of resolutions so strong as to have excited 
even the amiable and popular Bottetourt to displeasure. By 
those resolutions they reasserted, in the most emphatic terms, 
the exclusive right of the colony to tax themselves in all cases 
whatever ; complained of the recent acts of parliament, as so 
many violations of the British constitution ; and remonstrated, 
vigorously, against the right of transporting the freeborn sub- 
jects of these colonies to England, to take their trial before 
prejudiced tribunals, for offences alleged to be committed in 
the colonies. 

The tradition with regard to these resolutions is, that they 
were agreed to in a committee of the whole on one day, but 
not reported to the house, with the view of preventing their 
appearance on the journal of the next day, before they could 
be completely passed through the forms of the house ; appre- 



PATRICK HENRY. 69 

nending, from the fate of the Massachusetts legislature, that a 
knowledge of these resolutions, on the part of the governor, 
would produce an immediate dissolution of the house. When 
the house rose for the evening, however, the fact of their hav- 
ing passed such resolutions was whispered to the governor ; 
and he endeavoured in vain to procure a copy of them from the 
clerk, (Mr. Wythe.) 

On the next day, the house, foreseeing the evexit, met on the 
instant of the ringing of the bell, and with closed doors receiv- 
ed the report of their resolutions, considered, adopted, and or- 
dered them to be entered upon their journals ; whirh they had 
scarcely done when they were summoned to attend ihe govern- 
or, and were dissolved. "Mr. Speaker," said he, "and gen- 
tlemen of the house of representatives, I have heard of your 
resolves, and augur ill of their effects ; you have made it my 
duty to dissolve you, and you are accordingly dissolved." 

But the dissolution of the house of burgesses did not change 
the materials of which it had been composed. The same mem- 
bers were re-elected without a single exception, and the same 
determined spirit of resistance continued to diffuse itself from 
the legislature over the colony which they represented, and to 
animate by sympathy the neighbouring colonies. This house 
had the merit of originating that powerful engine of resistance, 
corresponding committees between the legislatures of the dif* 
ferent colonies.* The measure was brought forward by Mr. 
Dabney Carr, a new member from the county of Louisa, in a 
committee of the w^hole house, on the twelfth of March, seven 
teen hundred and seventy-three ; and the resolutions, as adopt- 
ed, now stood upon the journals of the day, in the following 
terms : — 

"Whereas, the minds of his majesty's faithful subjects in this 
colony have been much disturbed by various rumours and re- 
ports of proceedings, tending to deprive them of their ancient, 
legal, and constitutional rights ; 

" And whereas, the affairs of this colony are frequently con 
nected with those of Great Britain, as well as the neighbotiring 
colonies, which renders a communication of sentiments neces- 
sary : in order, therefore, to remove the uneasiness, and to 
quiet the minds of the people, as well as for the other good 
purposes above mentioned : — 

* The state of Massachusetts is entitled to equal honour : the measures 
were so nearly coeval in the two states, as to render it impossible that either 
could have borrowed it from the other. The messengers, who bore the prop- 
ositions from the two states, are said to have crossed each other on the way. 
This is Mr. Jefferson's account of it ; and Mrs. Warren, in her very interest- 
mg history of the revolution, admits, that the measure was original on the park 
of Virginia. See the note to page 110 of her first volume. 



"^O wiRT*s HFE or 

"Be it resolved, That a standing committee of correspond- 
ence and inquiry be appointed, to consist of eleven persons, to 
wit : the Honourable Peyton Randolph, esquire, Robert C. 
Nicholas, Richard Bland, Richard H. Lee, Benjamin Harrison, 
Edmund Pendleton, Patrick Henry, Dudley Digges, Dabney 
Carr, Archibald Gary, and Thomas Jefferson, esquires, any six 
of whom to be a committee, whose business it shall be to ob- 
tain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such acts 
and resolutions of the British parliament, or proceedings of 
administration, as may relate to or affect the British colonies in 
America ; and to keep up and maintain a correspondence and 
communication with our sister-colonies, respecting those im- 
portant considerations ; and the result of such of their proceed- 
ings, from time to time, to lay before this house. 

" Resolved, That it be an instruction to the said committee, 
that they do, without delay, inform themselves particularly of 
the principles and authority on which was constituted a court 
of inquiry, said to have been lately held in Rhode Island, with 
powers to transport persons accused of offences committed in 
America, to places beyond the seas, to be tried. 

" The said resolutions being severally read a second time, 
were, upon the question severally put thereupon, agreed to by 
the house, nemine contradicente. 

" Resolved, That the speaker of this house do transmit to 
the speakers of the different assemblies of the British colonies 
on the continent, copies of the said resolutions, and desire that 
they will lay them before their respective assemblies, and re- 
quest them to appoint some person or persons of their respect- 
ive bodies, to communicate from time to time with the said 
committee." 

In supporting these resolutions, Mr. Carr made his debut, 
and a noble one it is said to have been. This gentleman by 
profession a lawyer, had recently commenced his practice at 
the same bars with Patrick Henry ; and although he had not 
yet reached the meridian of life, he was considered by far the 
most formidable rival in forensic eloquence that Mr. Henry had 
ever yet had to encounter. He had the advantage of a person 
at once dignified and engaging, and the manner and action of 
an accomplished gentleman. 

His education was a finished one ; his mind trained to cor- 
rect thinking ; his conceptions quick, and clear, and strong ; 
he reasoned with great cogency, and had an imagination which 
enlightened beautifully, without interrupting or diverting the 
course of his argument. His voice was finely toned ; his feel- 
ings acute ; his style free, and rich, and various ; his devotion 
to the causp of liberty verging on enthusiasm ; and his spirit 



PATRICK HENRY. 71 

firm and undaunted, beyond the possibility of being shaken. 
With what delight the house of burgesses hailed this new 
champion, and felicitated themselves on such an accession to 
their cause, it is easy to imagine. But what are the hopes and 
expectations of mortals ! 

*' Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata, neque ultra 
" Esse sinent — " 

In two months from the time at which this gentleman stood 
before the house of burgesses, in all the pride of health, and 
genius, and eloquence — he was no more : lost to his friends, 
and to his country, and disappointed of sharing in that noble 
triumph which awaited the illustrious band of his compatriots.* 

Mr. Carr's resolutions were supported successively by Mr. 
Henry, and Mr. Richard Henry Lee, with their usual ability. 
The reader will no doubt be gratified by a short sketch of this 
assembly, as it presented itself to a gentleman who now saw it 
for the first time, and who looked upon it with an eye of taste 
and genius ; the writer who was then in the ardour of youth, 
and a stranger in the colony, has since been distinguished by 
holding and adorning some of the highest oflices of the state. 

* I cannot withhold from the reader the following note of this transaction 
and of the character of Mr. Carr, from one who knew him well, and heard this 
his first and last speech in the house of representatives : " I well remember 
the pleasure expressed in the countenance and conversation of the members 
generally, on this debut of Mr. Carr, and the hopes they conceived, as well 
from the talents as the patriotism it manifested. But he died within two 
months after, and in him we lost a powerful fellow-labourer. 

" His character was of a high order: a spotless integrity, sound judgment, 
handsome imagination, enriched by education and reading, quick and clear in 
his conceptions, of correct and ready elocution, impressing every hearer with 
the sincerity of the heart from which it flowed. His firmness was inflexible in 
whatever he thought right : but when no moral principle was in the way, never 
had man more of the milk of human kindness, of indulgence, of softness, of 
pleasantry in conversation and conduct. The number of his friends, and the 
warmth of their affection, were proofs of his worth and of their estimate of it. 
To give to those now living an idea of the affliction produced by his death, in 
the minds of all those who knew him, I liken it to that lately felt by them- 
selves on the death of his eldest son, Peter Carr ; so like him in all his en- 
dowments and moral qualities, and whose recollection can never recur without 
a deep-drawn sigh from the bosom of every one who knew him." 

Extract from the Virginia Gazette, of May 29, 1773. 
" On Sunday, the sixteenth of May, died, at Charlottesville, in the thirtieth 
year of his age, Dabney Carr, esquire, attorney at law, and member of assem- 
bly for the county of Louisa. This excellent person possessed a fine genius, 
and a benevolent heart, with a taste for all that was polite, elegant, or social ; 
and when occasion offered, displayed a masculine eloquence, and an undaunted 
love of liberty." 



72 

• 

*' When I first saw Mr. Henry, which was in March, seven- 
teen hundred and sevent)^-three, he wore a peach-blossom-col- 
oured coat and a dark wig, M^hich tied behind, and I believe, a 
bag to it, as was the fashion of the day. When pointed out to 
me as the orator of the assembly, I looked at him with no great 
prepossession. On the opposite side of the house sat the 
graceful Pendleton, and the harmonious Richard Henry Lee, 
whose aquiline nose, and Roman profile struck me much more 
forcibly than that of Mr. Henry, his rival in eloquence. The 
distance from the gallery to the chair, near which these distin- 
guished members sat, did not permit me to have such a view of 
their features and countenances, as to leave a strong impres- 
sion, except of Mr. Lee's, whose profile was too remarkable 
not to have been noticed at an even greater distance. 

" I was then between nineteen and twenty, had never heard 
a speech in public, except from the pulpit — had attached to the 
idea I had formed of an orator, all the advantages of person 
which Mr. Pendleton possessed, and even more — all the ad- 
vantages of voice whicli delighted me so much in the speeches 
of Mr. Lee — the fine polish of language, which that gentleman 
united with that harmonious voice, so as to make me sometimes 
fancy that I was listening to some being inspired with more 
than mortal powers of embellishment, and all the advantages 
of gesture which the celebrated Demosthenes considered as the 
first, second, and third qualifications of an orator. I discover- 
ed neither of these qualifications in the appearance of Mr. 
Henry, or in the few remarks I heard him deliver during the 
session. 

*' It was at this time that Mr. Dabney Carr made a motion 
for appointing a standing committee of correspondence with 
the other colonies. I was not present when Mr. Henry spoke 
on this question ; but was told by some of my fellow-colle- 
gians, that he far exceeded Mr. Lee, whose speech succeeded 
the next day. Never before had I heard what I thought ora- 
tory ; and if his speech was excelled by Mr. Henry's, the lat- 
ter must have been excellent, indeed. This was the only sub- 
ject that I recollect, which called forth the talents of the mem- 
bers during that session, and there was too much unanimity to 
have elicited all the strength of any one of them." 

My correcpondent had an opportunity of seeing Mr. Henry 
not long after<,vard, when speaking on a subject of the highest 
moment to the liberties of his country, and of witnessing that 
almost supernatural transformation of appearance, which has 
been already noticed as being invariably wrought by the excite- 
ment of his genius. We shall have his own account of it by- 
apd-by ; and shall see that he no longer formed an exception to 



PATRICK HENRY. 73 

the voice of his country, in assigning the palm of popular elo- 
quence to this most rare and extraordinary favourite of nature. 

It is not improbable, as it has been suggested, that the 
strongly-marked distinction of ranks which prevailed in this 
country, and the resentment, if not envy, with which the poor- 
er classes looked up to the splendour and ostentation of the 
landed aristocracy, had a considerable agency in inflaming Mr. 
Henry's hostility to the British court. He probably regarded 
the untitled nobles of Virginia as a sort of spurious emanation 
from the royal stock ; connected them in his resentments, and 
transferred from the eflect to the cause, the larger stream of 
his indignation. 

He had a rooted aversion and even abhorrence to everything 
in the shape of pride, cruelty, and tyranny ; and could not tol- 
erate that social inequality from which they proceeded, and by 
which they were nourished. The principle which he seems to 
have brought with him into the world, and which certainly 
formed the guide of all his public actions, was, that the whole 
human race was one family, equal in their rights, and their 
birthright liberty. 

The elements of his character were most happily mingled 
for the great struggle which was nov/ coming on. His views 
were not less steady than they were bold. His vision pierced 
deeply into futurity ; and long before a whisper of independ- 
ence had been heard in this land, he had looked through the 
whole of the approaching contest, and saw, wnth the eye and 
the rapture of a prophet, his country seated aloft among the 
nations of the earth. 

A striking proof of this prescience, is given in an anecdote 
communicated to me by Mr. Pope. These are his words : — 
"I am informed by Colonel John Overton, that before o-iie drop 
of blood was shed in our contest with Great Britain, he was at 
Colonel Samuel Overton's, in company with Mr. Henry, Col- 
onel Morris, John Hawkins, and Colonel Samuel Overton, 
when the last-mentioned gentleman asked Mr. Henry, * whether 
he supposed Great Britain would drive her colonies to extrem- 
ities : — And if she should, what he thought would be the issue 
of the war.' 

" When Mr. Henry, after looking round to see who were 
present, expressed himself confidentially to the company in 
the following manner : — ' She will drive us to extremities — no 
accommodation will take place — hostilities will soon com- 
mence — and a desperate and bloody touch it will be.' — ' But,' 
said Colonel Samuel Overton, * do you think, Mr. Henry, that 
an infant nation as we are, without discipline, arms, ammuni- 
tion, ships of war, or money to procure them — do you think M 

7 



74 wirt's life 0* 

possible, thus circumstanced,* to oppose successfully the fleets 
and armies of Great Britain V 

" ' I will be candid with you,' replied Mr. Henry. * I doubt 
whether we shall be able, alone, to cope with so powerful a 
nation. But,' continued he, (rising from his chair, with great 
animation,) ' where is France ? Where is Spain ? Where is 
Holland? the natural enemies of Great Britain. — Where will 
they be all this while ? Do you suppose they will stand by, 
idle and indifferent spectators to the contest? Will Louis 
XVI. be asleep all this time ? Believe me, no ! 

"'When Louis XVL shall be satisfied by our serious oppo- 
sition, and our Declaration of Independence, that all prospect 
of a reconciliation is gone, then, and not till then, will he fur- 
nish us with arms, ammunition, and clothing; and not with 
these only, but he will send his fleets and armies to fight our 
battles for us ; he will form with us a treaty offensive and de- 
fensive, against our unnatural mother. Spain and Holland 
will join the confederation ! Our independence will be estab- 
lished ! and we shall take our stand among the nations of the 
earth !' " 

Here he ceased ; and Colonel John Overton says, he shall 
never forget the voice and prophetic manner with which these 
predictions were uttered, and which have been since so literally 
verified. Colonel Overton says at the word independence, the 
company appeared to be startled ; for they had never heard 
anything of the kind before even suggested. 

It was anticipated, that the establishment of corresponding 
committees would lead eventually to a congress of the colo- 
nies, and that measure was brought about by the following 
circumstances : — 

The people of Boston having thrown into the sea a vessel 
load of tea, which was attempted to be forced upon them, were 
punished by an act of parliament, which shut up their port, 
from and after the first day of June, seventeen hundred and 
seventy-four. The house of burgesses of Virginia being in 
session when this act arrived, passed an order which stands 
upon their journal in the following terms : — 

" Tuesday, the 24:th of May, 14 Geo. III. 1774. 

"This house, being deeply impressed with apprehension of 
the great dangers to be derived to British America, from the 
hostile invasion of the city of Boston, in our sister-colony of 
the Massachusetts bay, whose commerce and harbour are, on 
the first day of June next, to be stopped by an armed force, 
deem it highly necessary that the said first day of June next 
be set apart, by the members of this house, as a day of fasting, 



PATRICK HENRY. 75 

humiliation, ana prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine inter- 
position for averting the heavy calamity which threatens de- 
struction to our civil rights, and the evils of civil war ; to give 
us one heart and one mind, firmly to oppose, by all just and 
proper means, every injury to American rights ; and that the 
minds of his majesty and his parliament may be inspired from 
above with wisdom, moderation, and justice, to remove from 
the loyal people of America all cause of danger from a contin- 
ued pursuit of measures pregnant with their ruin. 

" Ordered, therefore, That the members of this house da 
attend in their places, at the hour of ten in the forenoon, on the 
said first day of June next, in order to proceed with the speaker 
and the mace to the church in this city, for the purpose afore- 
said ; and that the Reverend Mr. Price be appointed to read 
prayers, and to preach a sermon suitable to the occasion." 

In consequence of this order. Governor Dunmore, on the 
following day, dissolved the house, with this speech: — "Mr. 
Speaker, and gentlemen of the house of burgesses : I have in 
my hand a paper published by order of your house, conceived 
in such terms as reflect highly upon his majesty and the par- 
liament of Great Britain, which makes it necessary to dissolve 
you, and you are dissolved accordingly." 

The members immediately withdrew to the Raleigh tavern, 
where they formed themselves into a committee to consider of 
the most expedient and necessary measures to guard against 
the encroachments which so glaringly threatened them ; and im- 
mediately adopted the following spirited association : — 

" An association signed by eighty-nine members of the late 
house of burgesses. We, his majesty's most dutiful and loyal 
subjects, the late representatives of the good people of this 
country, having been deprived, by the sudden interposition of 
the executive part of this government, from giving our coun- 
trymen the advice we wished to convey to them, in a legisla- 
tive capacity, find ourselves under the hard necessity of Eudopt- 
ing this, the only method we have left, of pointing out to our 
countrymen such measures as, in our opinion, are best fitted 
to secure our dear rights and liberty from destruction, by the 
heavy hand of power now lifted against North America. 

" With much grief we find, that our dutiful applications to 
Great Britain for the security of our just, ancient, and consti- 
tutional rights, have been not only disregarded, but that a de- 
termined system is formed and pressed, for reducing the inhab- 
itants of British America to slavery, by subjecting them to the 
payment of taxes imposed without the consent of the people or 
their representatives ; and that, in pursuit of this system, we 
find an act of British parliament, lately passed for stopping the 



76 Wirt's life op 

harbour and commerce of the town of Boston, in our sister-col- 
ony of Massachusetts bay, until the people there submit to 
the payment of such unconstitutional taxes ; and which act 
most violently and arbitrarily deprives them of their property, 
in wharves erected by private persons, at their own great and 
proper expense ; which act is, in our opinion, a most danger- 
ous aitempt to destroy the constitutional liberty and rights of 
all Noilh America. 

" li is further our opinion, that as tea, on its importation into 
America, is charged with a duty imposed by parliament, for 
the pi: 'pose of raising a revenue without the consent of the 
peoph. ;t ought not to be used by any person who wishes well 
to XhHik institutional rights and liberties of British America. 
And whereas the India company have ungenerously attempted 
the ruin of America, by sending many ships loaded with tea 
into the colonies, thereby intending to fix a precedent in favour 
of arbitrary taxation, we deem it highly proper and do accord- 
ingly recommend it strongly to our countrymen, not to pur- 
chase or use any kind of East India commodity whatsoever, 
except saltpetre and spices, until the grievances of America are 
redressed.. 

" We are further clearly of opinion, that an attack made on 
one of our sister-colonies, to compel submission to arbitrary 
taxes, is an attack made on all British America, and threatens 
ruin to the rights of all, unless the united wisdom of the whole 
be applied. And for this purpose it is recommended to the 
committee of correspondence, that they communicate with their 
several corresponding committees, on the expediency of ap- 
pointing deputies from the several colonies of British Amer- 
ica, to meet in general congress, at such place, annually, as 
shall he thought most convenient ; there to deliberate on those 
general measures lohich the united interests of America may 
from time to time require. 

*' A tender regard for the interests of our fellow-subjects, the 
merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain, prevents us 
from going further at this time ; most earnestly hoping that 
the unconstitutional principle of taxing the colonies without 
their consent will not be persisted in, thereby to compel us 
against our will, to avoid all commercial intercourse with Brit- 
ain. Wishing them and our people free and happy, we are 
their affectionate friends, the late representatives of Virginia. 

" The 27th day of May, 1774." 

To give effect to the recommendation of a congress on the 
part of this colony, delegates Avere shortly after elected by the 
several counties to meet in Williamsburgh on the first of Au- 



PATRICK HENRY. 77 

gust following, to consider further of the state of public affairs, 
and more particularly, to appoint deputies to the general con- 
gress, which was to be convened at Philadelphia, on the fifth 
of September following. The clear, firm, and animated instruc- 
tions given by the people of the several counties to their dele- 
gates, evince the thorough knowledge of the great parliamentary 
question which now pervaded the country, and the determined 
spirit of the colonists to resist the claim of British taxation. 

The following are the Instructions from the county of Han- 
over : — 
*' To John Synie and Patrick Henry, Jun., Esquires. 

"Gentlemen, You have our thanks for your patriot], faith- 
ful, and spirited conduct, in the part you acted in . .*, late 
assembly, as our burgesses, and as we are greatly alarmed at 
the proceedings of the British parliament respecting the town 
of Boston, and the province of Massachusetts bay ; and as we 
understand a meeting of delegates from all the counties in^this 
colony is appointed to be in Williamsburgh on the first day of 
next month, to deliberate on our public affairs, we do hereby 
appoint you, gentlemen, our delegates ; and we do request you, 
then and there, to meet, consult, and advise, touching such 
matters as are most likely to effect our deliverance from the 
evils with which our country is threatened. 

" The importance of those things which will offer themselves 
for your deliberation is exceedingly great ; and when it is con- 
sidered that the effect of the measures you may adopt will 
reach our latest posterity, you will excuse us for giving you 
our sentiments, and pointing out some particulars, proper for 
that plan of conduct we wish you to observe. 

" We are freemen ; we have a right to be so ; and to enjoy ail 
the privileges and immunities of our fellow-subjects in Eng- 
land ; and while we retain a just sense of that freedom, and 
those rights and privileges necessary for its safety and secu- 
rity, we shall never give up the right of taxation. Let it suf- 
fice to say, once for all, we will never be taxed but by our own 
representatives ; this is the great badge of freedom, and British 
America hath hitherto been distinguished by it ; and when we 
see the British parliament trampling upon that right, and acting 
with determined resolution to destroy it, we would wish to see 
the united wisdom and fortitude of America collected for its 
defence. 

"The sphere of life in which we move hath not afforded us 
lights sufficient to determine with certainty, concerning those 
things from which the troubles at Boston originated. Whether 
the people there were warranted by justice, when they destroy- 
ed the tea, we know not ; but this we know, that the parlia- 

7* 



78 wirt's life of 

ment by their proceedings, ha\'e made us and all North Anicr* 
lea parties in the present dispute, and deeply interested in the 
event of it ; insomuch that if our sister-colony of Massachu- 
setts bay is enslaved, ii?e cannot long remain free. 

"Our minds are filled with anxiety when we view the friendly 
regard of our parent state turned into enmity ; and those pow- 
ers of government formerly exerted for our aid and protection, 
formed into dangerous efforts for our destruction. We read 
our intended doom in the Boston port-bill, in that for altering 
the mode of trial in criminal cases, and, finally, in the bill for 
altering the form of government in the Massachusetts bay. 
These several acts are replete with injustice and oppression, 
and strongly expressive of the future policy of Britain toward 
all her colonies ; if a full and Uncontrolled operation is given 
to this detestable system in its earlier stages, it will probably 
be fixed upon us for ever. 

*' Let it, therefore, be your great object to obtain a speedy 
repeal of those acts ; and for this purpose we recommend the 
adoption of such measures as may produce the hearty union 
of all our countrymen and sister-colonies. United we stand, 

DIVIDED WE FALL. 

"To attain this wished-for union, we declare our readiness to 
sacrifice any lesser interest arising from a soil, climate, situa- 
tion, or productions pecuhar to us. We judge it conducive to 
the interests of America, that a general congress of deputies 
from all the colonies be held, in order to form a plan for guard- 
ing the claim of the colonists, and their constitutional rights, 
from future encroachment, and for the speedy relief of our suf- 
fering brethren at Boston. 

" For the present, we think it proper to form a general asso- 
ciation against the purchase of all articles of goods imported 
from Great Britain, except negroes' cloths, salt, saltpetre, pow- 
der, lead, utensils and implements for handy-craftsmen and 
manufacturers, which cannot be had in America ; books, pa- 
per, and the like necessaries ; and not to purchase any goods 
or merchandise that shall be imported from Great Britain, after 
a certain day that may be agreed on for that purpose by the 
said general'meeting of deputies at Williamsburgh, except the 
articles aforesaid, or such as shall be allowed to be imported 
by the said meeting ; and that we will encourage the manufac- 
tures of America by every means in our power. 

"A regard to justice hinders us at this time from withholding 
our exports ; nothing but the direct necessity shall induce us 
to adopt that proceeding, which we shall strive to avoid as long 
as possible. The African trade for slaves we consider as most 
dano-erous to the virtue and welfare of this country ; we there- 



PATRICK HENRY. 79 

forfc most earnestly wish to see it totally discouraged. A steady 
loyalty to the kings of England has ever distinguished our 
country; the present state olf things here, as well as the many 
instances of it to be found in our history, leave no room to 
doubt it. 

" God grant that we may never see the time when that loy- 
alty shall be found incompatible with the rights of freemen. 
Our most ardent desire is, that we and our latest posterity may 
continue to live under the genuine, unaltered constitution of 
England, and be subjects, in the true spirit of that constitution, 
to his majesty, and his illustrious house; and may the wretches 
who affirm that we desire the contrary, feel the punishment 
due to falsehood and villany. 

" While prudence and moderation shall guide your councils, 
we trust, gentlemen, that firmness, resolution, and zeal, will ani- 
mate you in the glorious struggle. The arm of power, which 
is now stretched forth against us, is indeed formidable ; but we 
do not despair. Our cause is good ; and if it is served with 
constancy and fidelity, it cannot fail of success. We promise 
you our best support, and we will heartily join in such meas- 
ures as a majority of our countrymen shall adopt for securing 
the public liberty. 

" Resolved, That the above address be transmitted to the 
printers to be published in the gazettes. 

"William Pollard, Clerk." 

On the first of August, accordingly, the first convention of 
Virginia delegates assembled in Williamsburgh ; and gave a 
new proof of the invincible energy by which they were actua- 
ted, in a series of resolutions, whereby they pledged themselves 
to make common cause with the people of Boston in every ex- 
tremity, and broke oflT all commercial connexion with the 
mother-country, until the grievances of which they complained 
should be redressed. By their last resolution they empowered 
their moderator, Mr. Peyton Randolph, or in case of hi^ death, 
Robert C. Nicholas, esquire, on any future occasion that might 
in his opinion require it, to convene the several delegates of the 
colony, at such time and place as he might judge proper. 

They then appointed as deputies to congress on the part of 
this colony, Messrs. Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, 
George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin 
Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton, and furnished them with the 
following firm and spirited letter of instructions : — 
"Instructions for the Deputies appointed to meet in General 
Congress, on the part of the Colony of Virginia. 

"The unhappy disputes between Great Britain and her Amer- 
ican colonies, which began about the third year of the reign of 



^ wirt's life of 

his present majesty, and since continually increasing, have pro 
ceeded to lengths so dangerous and alarming, as to excite just 
apprehensions in the minds of his majesty's faithful subjects of 
the colony, that they are in danger of being deprived of their 
natural, ancient, constitutional, and chartered rights, have com 
pelled them to take the same into their most serious consider 
ation ; and being deprived of their usual and accustomed mod* 
of making known their grievances, have appointed us their rep- 
resentatives, to consider what is proper to be done in this dan- 
gerous crisis of American affairs. 

"It being our opinion that the united wisdom of North Amer- 
ica should be collected in a general congress of all the colonies, 
we have appointed the Honourable Peyton Randolph, Richard 
Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard 
Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton, esquires, 
deputies to represent this colony in the said congress, to be 
held at Philadelphia on the first Monday in September next. 

"And that they may be the better informed of our sentiments 
touching the conduct we wish them to observe on this impor- 
tant occasion, we desire that they will express, in the first 
place, our faith and true allegiance to his majesty, King George 
HI., our lawful and rightful sovereign ; and that we are deter- 
mined, with our lives and fortunes, to support him in the legal 
exercise of all his just rights and prerogatives. And, however 
misrepresented, we sincerely approve of a constitutional con- 
nexion with Great Britain, and wish most ardently a return of 
that intercourse of affection and commercial connexion that 
formerly united both countries ; which can only be effected by 
a removal of those causes of discontent which have of late un- 
happily divided us. 

"It cannot admit of a doubt, but that British subjects in 
America are entitled to the same rights and privileges as their 
fellow-subjects possess in Britain ; and, therefore, that the pow- 
er assumed by the British parliament to bind America by their 
statutes, in all cases whatsoever, is unconstitutional and the 
source of these unhappy differences. 

" The end of government would be defeated, by the British 
parliament exercising a power over the lives, the property, and 
the liberty of American subjects, who are not, and from their 
local circumstances cannot, be there represented. Of this na- 
ture we consider the several acts of parliament for raising a 
revenue in America, for extending the jurisdiction of the courts ' 
of admiralty, for seizing American subjects, and transporting 
them to Britain, to be tried for crimes committed in America, 
and the several late oppressive acts respecting the town of Bos- 
^pn, aad province of Massachusetts bay. 



PATRICK HENRY. 81 

**The original constitution of the American colonies, posses- 
sing their assemblies with the sole right of directing their inter- 
nal polity, it is absolutely destructive of the end of their in- 
stitution, that their legislatures should be suspended, or pre- 
vented, by hasty dissolutions, from exercising their legislative 
powers. 

"Wanting the protection of Britain, we have long acquiesced 
in their acts of navigation, restrictive of our commerce, which 
we consider as an ample recompense for such protection ; but 
as those acts derive their efficacy from that foundation alone, 
we have reason to -expect they will be restrained, so as to pro- 
duce the reasonable purposes of Britain, and not be injurioi 4 
to us. 

" To obtain redress of these grievances, without which th^ 
people of America can neither be safe, free, nor happy, they 
are willing to undergo the great inconvenience that will be de- 
rived to them, from stopping all imports whatsoever from Great 
Britain, after the first day of November next, and also to cease 
exporting any commodity whatsoever to the same place, after 
the tenth day of August, seventeen hundred and seventy-five. 

" The earnest desire we have to make as quick and full pay- 
ment as possible of our debts to Great Britain, and to avoid the 
heavy injury that would arise to this country from an earlier 
adoption of the non-exportation plan, after the people have al- 
ready applied so much of their labour to the perfecting of the 
present crop, by which means they have been prevented from 
pursuing other methods of clothing and supporting their fami- 
lies, have rendered it necessary to restrain you in this article 
of non-exportation ; but it is our desire that you cordially co- 
operate with our sister-colonies in general congress, in such 
other just and proper methods as they, or the majority shall 
deem necessary for the accomplishment of these valuable 
ends. 

" The proclamation issued by General Gage, in the govern- 
ment of the province of the Massachusetts bay, declaring it 
treason for the inhabitants of that province to assemble them- 
selves to consider of their grievances, and form associations for 
their common conduct on the occasion, and requiring the civil 
magistrates and officers to apprehend all such persons to be 
tried for their supposed offences, is the most alarming process 
that ever appeared in a British government ; the said General 
Gage has thereby assumed and taken upon himself powers 
denied by the constitution to our legal sovereign ; he not hav 
ing condescended to disclose by what authority he exercises 
such extensive and unheard-of powers, we are at a loss to de- 
termine whether he intends to justify himself as the represent. 



HfS wirt's life of 

ative of the king, or as the commander-in-chief of his majesty's 
forces in America. 

" If he considers himself as acting in the character of his 
majesty's representative, we would remind him that the statute 
25th, Edward III., has expressed and defined all treasonable 
offences, and the legislature of Great Britain hath declared that 
no offence shall be construed to be treason, but such as is point- 
ed out by that statute ; and that this was done to take out of 
the hands of tyrannical kings, and of weak and wicked minis- 
ters, that deadly weapon which constructive treason hath fur- 
nished them with, and which had drawn the blood of the best 
and honestest men in the kingdom ; and that the king of Great 
Britain hath no right by his proclamation to subject his people 
to imprisonment, pains, and penalties. 

" That if the said General Gage conceives he is empowered 
to act in this manner, as the commander-in-chief of his majesty's 
forces in America, this odious and illegal proclamation must 
be considered as a plain and full declaration that this despotic 
viceroy will be bound by no law, nor regard the constitutional 
rights of his majesty's subjects, whenever they interfere with 
the plan he has formed for oppressing the good people of Mas- 
sachusetts bay ; and, therefore, that the executing, or attempt- 
ing to execute, such proclamation, will justify resistance and 
reprisal." 

On the fourth of September, seventeen hundred and seventy- 
four, that venerable body, the old continental congress of the 
United States, (toward whom every American heart will bow 
with pious homage, while the name of liberty shall be dear in 
our land,) met for the first time at Carpenter's Hall, in the city 
of Philadelphia. Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, was chosen 
president, and the house was organized for business with all 
the solemnities of a regular legislature.* 

The most eminent men of the various colonies were now, 
for the first time, brought together. They were known to each 
other by fame ; but they were personally strangers. The 

* Sallust, in his second oration to C. Cesar, Ve Republica Ordinanda, 
gives a short and animated picture of their Roman ancestors which, with the 
change of a single word, (libertate for imperio,) describes so happily our old 
continental congress, that I am sure I shall gratify the classic reader by its 
insertion. 

" Itaque, majores nostri, cum bellis asperimis premerentur, equis, viris, 
pecunia amissa, nunquam defessi sunt armati de libertate contendere. Non 
inopia aerarii, non vis hostium, non adversa res, ingentem eorum animum 
subegit : quem, quae virtute ceperant, simul cum anima retinerent. Atque 
ea, magis fortibus consiliis, quam bonis praeliis, patrata sunt. Quippe apud 
illos, una respublica erat ; ei consulebant ; factio, contra hostes parabatur ; 
corpus atque ingenium, patris, non suas, quisque potentiae exercitabat " 



PATRICK HENRY. 83 

meeting was awfully solemn. The object which had called 
them together was of incalculable magnitude. The liberties of 
no less than three millions of people, with that of all their pos- 
terity, were staked on the wisdom and energy of their councils. 
No wonder, then, at the long and deep silence which is said to 
have followed upon their organization ; at the anxiety with 
which the members looked around upon each other ; and the 
reluctance which every individual felt to open a business so 
fearfully momentous. 

In the midst of this deep and deathlike silence, and just 
when it was beginning to become painfully embarrassing, Mr. 
Henry arose slowly, as if borne down by the weight of the 
subject. After faltering, according to his habit, through a most 
impressive exordium, in which he merely echoed back the con- 
sciousness of every other heart, in deploring his inability to do 
justice to the occasion, he launched gradually into a recital of 
the colonial wrongs. Rising, as he advanced, with the gran- 
deur of his subject, and glowing at length with all the majesty 
and expectation of the occasion, his speech seemed more than 
that of mortal man. 

Even those who had heard him in all his glory, in the house 
of burgesses of Virginia, were astonished at the manner in 
which his talents seemed to swell and expand themselves, to 
fill the vaster theatre in which he was now placed. There was 
no rant — no rhapsody — no labour of the understanding — no 
straining of the voice — no confusion of the utterance. His 
countenance was erect — his eye, steady — his action, noble — 
his enunciation, clear and firm — his mind poised on its centre — 
his views of his subject comprehensive and great — and his 
imagination coruscating with a magnificence and a variety, 
which struck even that assembly with amazement and awe. 
He sat down amid murmurs of astonishment and applause ; and 
as he had been before proclaimed the greatest orator of Vir- 
ginia, he was now, on every hand, admitted to be the first ora- 
tor of America. 

He was followed by Mr. Richard Henry Lee, who charmed 
the house with a different kind of eloquence — chaste — clas- 
sical — beautiful — his polished periods rolling along without ef 
fort, filling the ear with the most bewitching harmony, and de- 
lighting the mind with the most exquisite imagery. The cul- 
tivated graces of Mr. Lee's rhetoric received and at the same 
time reflected beauty, by their contrast with the wild and grand 
effusions of Mr. Henry. Just as those noble monuments of 
art which lie scattered through the celebrated landscape of 
Naples, at once adorn, and are in their turn adorned by the sur- 
rounding majesty of Nature. 



84 wirt's life of 

Two models of eloquence, each so perfect in its kind, and so 
finely contrasted, could not but fill the house with the highest 
admiration ; and as Mr. Henry had before been pronounced the 
Demosthenes, it was conceded on every hand, that Mr. Lee 
was the Cicero, of America. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Proceedings of the Congress — Mr. Henry's early Opinion of Washington- 
Meeting of Delegates in Richmond — Mr. Henry's Resolutions for arming 
the Militia — Speech on that Occasion — Resolutions Adopted. 

It is due, however, to historic truth to record, that the su- 
perior powers of these great men were manifested only in de- 
bate. On the floor of the house, and during the first days of 
the session, while general grievances were the topic, they took 
the undisputed lead in the assembly, and were confessedly, 
primi inter pares. But when called down from the heights ot 
declamation, to that severer test of intellectual excellence, the 
details of business, they found themselves in a body of cool- 
headed, reflecting, and most able men, by whom they were, in 
their turn, completely thrown into the shade. 

A petition to the king, an address to the people of Great 
Britain, and a memorial to the people of British America, were 
agreed to be drawn. Mr. Lee, Mr. Henry, and others, were 
appointed for the first ; Mr. Lee, Mr. Livingston, and Mr. Jay, 
for the two last. The splendour of their debut occasioned Mr. 
Henry to be designated by his committee, to draw the petition 
to the king, with which they were charged ; and Mr. Lee was 
charged with the address to the people of England. 

The last was first reported. On reading it, great disappoint- 
ment was expressed in every countenance, and a dead silence 
ensued for some minutes. At length, it was laid on the table, 
for perusal and consideration, till the next day : when first one 
member and then another arose, and paying some faint com- 
pliment to the composition, observed that there were still cer- 
tain considerations not expressed, which should properly find 
a place in it. The address was, therefore, committed for 
amendment; and one prepared by Mr. Jay, and offered by 
Governor Livingston, was reported and adopted, with scarcely 
an alteration. 

These facts are stated by a gentleman to whom they were 
communicated by Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Harrison, of the Vir 



PATRICK HENRY. 85 

ginia delegation, (except that Mr. Harrison erroneously as- 
cribed the draught to Governor Livingston,) and to whom they 
were afterward confirmed by Governor Livingston himself. 
Mr. Henry's draught of a petition to the king was equally un- 
successful, and was recommitted for amendment. Mr. John 
Dickinson (the author of the Farmer's Letters) was added to 
the committee, and a new draught, prepared by him, was 
adopted.* 

This is one of the incidents in^ the life of Mr. Henry to 
which an allusion was made in a former page, when it was ob- 
served, that notwithstanding the wonderful gifts which he had 
derived from nature, he lived himself to deplore his early neg- 
lect of literature. But for this neglect, that imperishable 
trophy won by the pen of Mr. John Dickinson would have 
been his ; and the fame of his genius, instead of resting on 
tradition, or the short-lived report of his present biographer, 
would have flourished on the immortal page of the American 
history. 

It is a trite remark, that the talents for speaking and for 
writing eminently are very rarely found united in the same ind^ 
vidual ; and the rarity of the occurrence has led to an opinion, 
that those talents depend on constitutions of mind so widely 
different, as to render their union almost wholly unattainable. 
This was not the opinion, however, it is believed, at Athens 
and at Rome : it cannot, I apprehend, be the opinion either in 
the united kingdom of Great Britain. 

There have been, indeed, in these countries distmguished 
orators, who have not left behind them any proofs of their emi- 
nence in composition ; but neither have they left behind them 
any proofs of their failure in this respect ; so that the conclu- 
?<ion of their incompetency is rather assumed than established. 
On the other hand, there have been in all those countries, too 
many illustrious examples of the union of those talents, to jus- 
tify the belief of their incongruity by any general law of nature. 
That there have been many eminent writers who, from phys- 
ical defects, could never have become orators, is very certain : 
but is the converse of the proposition equally true ? Was there 
ever an eminent orator who might not, by proper discipline, 

* The late Governor Tyler, a warm friend of Mr. Henry, used to relate an 
anecdote in strict accordance with this statement : it was, that after these two 
gentlemen had made their first speeches, Mr. Chase, a delegate from Maryland, 
walked across the house to the seat of his colleague, and said to him, in an 
under voice : " We might as well go home ; we are not able to legislate with 
these men." But that after the house came to descend to details, the same 
Mr. Chase was heard to remark : " Well, after all, I find these are but men- 
and in mere matters of business, hut very common meny 

8 



86 wirt's life of 

t 

have become, also, a very eminent writer? What are the 
essential qualities of the orator ? Are they not judgment, in- 
vention, imagination, sensibility, taste, and expression, or the 
command of strong and appropriate language? 

If these be the qualities of the orator, it is very easy to un- 
derstand how they may be improved by the discipline of the 
closet ;* but not so easy to comprehend how they can possibly 
be injured by it. Is there any danger that this discipline will 
tame too much the fiery spirit, the enchanting wildness, and 
magnificent irregularity of the orator's genius ? The example 
of Demosthenes alone is a sufficient answer to this question ; 
and the reader will, at once, recall numerous other examples, 
corroborative of the same truth, both in ancient and modern 
times. 

The truth seems to be, that this rare union of talents results, 
not from any incongruity in their nature, bnt from defective edu- 
cation, taking this word in its larger, Roman sense. If the 
genius of the orator has been properly trained in his youth to 
both pursuits, instead of being injured, it will, I apprehend, be 
found to derive additional grace, beauty, and even sublimity, 
from the discipline. His flights will be at least as bold — they 
will be better sustained — and whether he chooses to descend 
in majestic circles, or to stoop on headlong wing, his perform- 
ance will not be the worse for having been taught to fly. 

For Mr. Henry and for the world, it happened unfortunately, 
that instead of the advantage of this Roman education, of which 
we have spoken, the years of his youth had been wasted in idle- 
ness. He had become celebrated as an orator before he had 
learned to compose ; and it is not therefore wonderful, that 
when withdrawn from the kindling presence of the crowd, he 
was called upon for the first time to take the pen, all the spirit 
and flame of his genius were extinguished.! 

* Nulla enim res tantum ad dicendum proficit, quantum scriptio. — Cic. 
Brut. xxiv. 92. 

t On this subject, of the rare union of the talents of fc'peaking and writing- 
in the same man, Cicero has a parallel between Galba and Lselius, which is 
not less just than it is beautiful. After having spoken of Galba as one of 
those men of great but less cultivated natural powers, who were afraid of low- 
ering the fame of their eloquence by submitting their writings to the world, he 
proceeds thus : — " Quem (Galbam) fortasse vis non ingenii solum, sed etiara. 
animi, et naturalis quidam dolor dicentem incendebat, eflfeciebatque, ut et inci- 
tata, et gravis, et vehemens esset oratio : dein, cum otiosus stilum prehende- 
rat, motusque omnis animi, tanquam ventus, hominem defecerat, flacessebat 
oratio : quod iis, qui limatius dicendi consectantur genus, accidere non solet, 
propterea quod prudentia nunquam deficit oratorem, qua ille utens, eodem mo- 
do possit et dicere et scribere ; ardor animi non semper adest, isque cum con- 
sedit, omnis ilia vis et quasi flamma oratoris extinguitur. Hanc igitur ob 



PATRICK HENRY. 87 

But while, with reference to his own fame and the lasting 
benefits which he might have conferred on the world, we 
lament his want of literary discipline, it is not impossible that, 
for the times in which he lived, and for the more immediate 
purpose of the American revolution, the popular opinion may 
be correct. 

The people seem to have admired him the more for his want 
of discipline. " His genius," they say, " was unbroken, and 
too full of fire, to bear the curb of composition. He delighted 
to swim the flood, to breast the torrent, and to scale the mount- 
ain : and supported as he was, in all public bodies, by mas- 
ters of the pen, they insist that it was even fortunate for 
the revolution, that his genius was left at large to revel in all 
the wildness and boldness of nature ; that it enabled him to in- 

causam, videtur Laelii mens spirare etiam in scriptis, Galbae autem, vis occi- 
disse." Brutus, xxiv. 93. 

There seems to have been a strong resemblance between the structure of 
Galba's eloquence and character, and those of Mr. Henry. In their habits, 
however, there was this striking difference, that Galba's preparation for speak- 
ing was always most elaborate ; Mr. Henry's, generally, none at all. On this 
head, of Galba's anxious preparation, Cicero gives us a very interesting anec- 
dote : Lselius, it seems, was engaged in a great cause, in which he spoke with 
the peculiar elegance which always distinguished him ; but not having suc- 
ceeded in convincing his judges, the case was adjourned to another day, and a 
new argument was called for. Lselius again appeared, and surpassed his for- 
mer exertions, but with the same result, of another adjournment and a call for 
re-argument. His clients attended him to his house on the rising of the 
court, expressed their gratitude in the strongest terms, and begged that he 
would not permit himself to be wearied into a desertion of them. To this 
Laelius answered, that what he had done for the support of the cause, had, in- 
deed, been diligently and accurately performed ; but he was satisfied that that 
cause could be better defended by the more bold and vehement eloquence of 
Galba. 

Galba was accordingly applied to ; but was, at first, startled at the idea of 
succeeding such an orator as Lselius in any cause ; more especially, on the 
short time for preparation that was then allowed him. He yielded, however, 
to their importunities ; and employed the whole of the intermediate day and 
the morning of that in which the court was to sit, in studying and annotating, 
with the help of his amanuensis. When the hour of court arrived, his clients 
called for him, and Galba came out, " with that complexion and those eyes," 
says Cicero, " which would have led you to suppose that he had been engaged 
in pleading a cause, and not in studying it." Whence it appears that Galba 
was not less vehement and inflamed in meditating, than in the act of deliver- 
ing a speech. His success was proportioned to his preparation. " In the 
midst of the greatest expectation, surrounded by a vast concourse of hearers, 
before Laslius himself, he plead the cause with so much force and so much 
power, that no part of his speech passed without applause, and his clients 
were discharged, with the approbation of every one." What an impression 
does this give us of the magnanimity of Lselius, as well as the abilities of 
Galba! Mr. Henry would not have taken the trouble of Galba's preparation; 
but he would have gained the cause, if human abilities could have gained it. 



68 wirt's life of 

fuse, more successfully, his own intrepid spirit into the meas- 
ures of the revolution ; that it rendered his courage more con- 
tagious, and enabled him to achieve, by a kind of happy rash- 
ness, what perhaps had been lost by a better regulated mind.'* 

But to resume our narrative : congress arose in October, and 
Mr. Henry returned to his native county. Here, as was nat 
ural, he was surrounded by his neighbours, who were eager to 
hear not only what had been done, but what kind of men had 
composed that illustrious body. 

He answered their inquiries with all his wonted kind- 
ness and candour; and having been asked by one of them, 
*'whom he thought the greatest man in congress," he replied : 
*'If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, 
is by far the greatest orator ; but if you speak of solid informa- 
tion and sound judgment, Colonel Washington is, unquestion- 
ably, the greatest man on that floor." Such was the penetra- 
tion which, at that early period of Mr. Washington's life, could 
pierce through his retiring modesty and habitual reserve, and 
estimate so correctly the unrivalled worth of his character. 

On Monday, the twentieth of March, seventeen hundred and 
seventy-five, the convention of delegates, from the several 
counties and corporations of Virginia, met for the second time. 
This assembly was held in the old church in the town of Rich- 
mond. Mr. Henry was a member of that body also. The 
reader will bear in mind, the tone of the instructions given by 
the convention of the preceding year to their deputies in con- 
gress. 

He will remember that, while they recite with great feeling 
the series of grievances under which the colonies had laboured, 
and insist with firmness on their constitutional rights, they 
give, nevertheless, the most explicit and solemn pledge of their 
faith and true allegiance to his majesty King George IH., and 
avow their determination to support him with their lives and 
fortunes, in the legal exercise of all his just rights and prerog- 
atives. He will remember, that these instructions contain also, 
an expression of their sincere approbation of a connexion with 
Great Britain, and their ardent wishes for a return of that 
friendly intercourse from which this country had derived so 
much prosperity and happiness. 

These sentiments still influenced many of the leading mem- 
bers of the convention of seventeen hundred and seventy-five. 
They could not part with the fond hope that those peaceful days 
would again return which had shed so much light and warmth 
over the land ; and the report of the king's gracious reception 
of the petition from congress tended to cherish and foster that 
hope, and to render them averse to any means of violence*. 



PATRICK HENRY. 89 

f5ut Mr. Henry saw things with a steadier eye and a deeper 
insight. His judgment was too solid to be duped by appear- 
ances ; and his heart too firm and manly to be amused by false 
and flattering hopes. He had long since read the true charac- 
ter of the British court, and saw that no alternative remained 
for his country but abject submission or heroic resistance. It 
was not for a soul like Henry's to hesitate between these 
courses. 

He had offered upon the altar of liberty no divided heart. 
The g-ulf of war which yawned before him was indeed fiery and 
fearful; but he saw that the awful plunge was inevitable. The 
body of the convention, however, hesitated. They cast around 
*'a longing, lingering look" on those flowery fields on which 
peace, and ease, and joy, were still sporting; and it required 
all the energies of a Mentor like Henry to push them from the 
precipice, and conduct them over the stormy sea of the revo- 
lution, to liberty and glory. 

The convention being formed and organized for business, 
proceeded in the first place, to express their unqualified appro- 
bation of the measures of congress, and to declare that they 
considered " this whole continent as under the highest obliga- 
tions to that respectable body, for the wisdom of their counsels, 
and their unremitted endeavours to maintain and preserve 
inviolate the just rights and liberties of his majesty's dutiful 
and loyal subjects in America." 

They next resolve, that " the warmest thanks of the conven- 
tion, and of all the inhabitants of this colony, were due, and that 
this just tribute of applause be presented to the worthy del- 
egates, deputed by a former convention to represent this colony 
in general congress, for their cheerful undertaking and faithful 
discharge of the very important trust reposed in them." 

The morning of the twenty-third of March was opened, by 
reading a petition and memorial from the assembly of Jamaica, 
to the king's most excellent majesty : whereupon it was — 
"Resolved, That the unfeigned thanks and most grateful ac- 
knowledgments of the convention be presented to that very 
respectable assembly, for the exceeding generous and affection- 
ate part they have so nobly taken in the unhappy contest be« 
tween Great Britain and her colonies ; and for their truly pa- 
triotic endeavours to fix the just claims of the colonists upon 
the most permanent constitutional principles : — that the assem- 
bly be assured, that it is the most ardent wish of this colony, 
[and they were persuaded of the whole continent of North 
America,] to see a speedy return of those halcyon days, when 
we lived a free and happy people." 

These proceedings were not adapted to the taste of Mr. 

8* 



90 WIRT S LIFE OF 

Henry ; or. the contrary, they were " gall and wormwood" to 
him. The house required to be wrought up to a bolder tone 
He rose, therefore, and moved the following manly resolu 
tions : — 

" Resolved, That a well-regulated militia, composed of gen- 
tlemen and yeomen, is the natural strength and only security 
of a free government ; that such a militia in this colony would 
for ever render it unnecessary for the mother-country to keep 
among us, for the purpose of our defence, any standing army 
of mercenary soldiers, always subversive of the quiet, and dan 
gerous to the liberties of the people, and would obviate the pre- 
text of taxing us for their support. 

" That the establishment of such militia is, at this time, pecu- 
liarly necessary, by the state of our laws, for the protection 
and defence of the country, some of which are already expired, 
and others will shortly be so : and that the known remissness 
of government in calling us together in legislative capacity, 
renders it too insecure, in this time of danger and distress, to 
rely that opportunity will be given of renewing them, in gen- 
eral assembly, or making" any provision to secure our inesti- 
mable rights and liberties, from those further violations with 
which they are threatened. 

" Resolved, therefore. That this colony be immediately put 
into a state of defence, and that 

be a committee to prepare a plan for imbodying, arming and 
disciplining such a number of men, as may be sufficient for 
that purpose.^' 

The alarm which such a proposition must have given to 
those who had contemplated no resistance of a character more 
serious than petition, non-importation, and passive fortitude, 
and who still hung with suppliant tenderness on the skirts of 
Britain, will he readily conceived by the reflecting reader. The 
shock was painful. It was almost general. The resolutions 
were opposed as not only rash in policy, but as harsh and well 
nigh impious in point of feeling. Some of the warmest patriots of 
the convention opposed them. Richard Bland, Benjamin Har- 
rison, and Edmund Pendleton, who had so lately drunk of the 
fountain of patriotism in the continental congress, and Robert 
C. Nicholas, one of the best as well as ablest men and patriots 
in the state, resisted them with all their influence and abilities. 

They urged the late gracious reception of the congressional 
petition by the throne. They insisted that national comity, and 
much more filial respect, demanded the exercise of a more dig- 
nified patience. That the sympathies of the parent-country 
were now on our side. That the friends of American liberty 
in parliament were still with us, and had, as yet, had no cause 



' PATRICK HENRY. 91 

to blush for our indiscretion. That the manufacturing interests 
of Great Britain, already smarting under the elFects of our non- 
importation, co-operated powerfully toward our relief. That 
the sovereign himself had relented, and showed that he looked 
upon our sufferings with an eye of pity. 

"Was this a moment," they asked, " to disgust our friends, 
to extinguish all the conspiring sympathies wliich were work- 
ing in our favour, to turn their friendship into hatred, their pity 
into revenge ? And what was there, they asked, in the situa- 
tion of the colony, to tempt us to this ? Were we a great mili- 
tary people ? Were we ready for war ? Where were our 
stores — where were our arms — where our soldiers — where our 
generals — where our money, the sinews of war ? They were 
nowhere to be found. 

"In truth, we were poor — we were naked — we were defence- 
less. And yet we talk of assuming the front of war ! of assu- 
ming it, too, against a nation, one of the most formidable in 
the world ? A nation ready and armed at all points ! Her 
navies riding triumphant in every sea; her armies never march- 
ing but to certain victory ! What was to be the issue of the 
struggle we were called upon to court? What could be the 
issue, in the comparative circumstances of the two countries, 
but to yield up this country an easy prey to Great Britain, 
and to convert the illegitimate right which the British par- 
liament now claimed, into a firm and indubitable right, by 
conquest ! 

" The measure might be brave ; but it was the bravery of 
madmen. It had no pretension to the character of prudence ; 
and as little to the grace of genuine courage. It would be 
time enough to resort to measures of c^espazV, when every well- 
founded hope had entirely vanished." 

To this strong view of the subject, supported as it was by 
the stubborn fact of the well-known helpless condition of the 
colony, the opponents of these resolutions superadded every 
topic of persuasion which belongs to the cause. 

" The strength and lustre which we have derived from our 
connexion with Great Britain — the domestic comforts which 
we had drawn from the same source, and whose value we were 
now able to estimate by their loss — that ray of reconciliation 
which was dawning upon us from the east, and which promised 
so fair and happy a day : — with this they contrasted the clouds 
and storms which the measure now proposed was so well cal- 
culated to raise — and in which we should not have even the 
poor consolation of being pitied by the world, since we should 
have so needlessly and rashly drawn them upon ourselves." 

These arguments and topics of persuasion were so well jus- 



92 wirt's life of 

tified by the appearance of things, and were moreover so en- 
tirely in unison with that love of ease and quiet which is nat- 
ural to man, and that disposition to hope for happier times, 
even under the most forbidding circumstances, that an ordinary 
man, in Mr. Henry's situation, would have been glad to com 
pound with the displeasure of the house, by being permitted to 
withdraw his resolutions in silence. 

Not so Mr. Henry. His was a spirit fitted to raise the 
whirlwind, as well as to ride in and direct it. His was that 
comprehensive view, that unerring prescience, that perfect 
command over the actions of men, which qualified him not 
merely to guide, but almost to create the destinies of nations. 

He rose at this time with a majesty unusual to him in an ex- 
ordium, and with all that self-possession by which he was so 
invariably distinguished. "No man," he said, " thought more 
highly than he did of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the 
very worthy gentlemen who had just addressed the house. 
But different men often saw the same subject in different lights ; 
and, therefore, he hoped it would not be thought disrespectful 
to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as he did, opinions of a 
character very opposite to theirs, he should speak forth his 
sentiments freely, and without reserve. 

" This," he said, " was no time for ceremony. The question 
before this house was one of awful moment to the country. 
For his own part, he considered it as nothing less than a ques- 
tion of freedom or slavery. And in proportion to the magni- 
tude of the subject, ought to be the freedom of the debate. It 
was only in this way that they could hope to arrive at truth, 
and fulfil the great responsibility which they held to God and 
their country. Should he keep back his opinions at such a 
time, through fear of giving offence, he should consider him- 
self as guilty of treason toward his country, and of an act of 
disloyalty toward the Majesty of heaven, which he revered 
above all earthly kings. 

" Mr. President," said he, "it is natural to man to indulge in 
the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a 
painful truth — and listen to the song of that siren, till she 
transforms us into beasts. Is this," he asked, " the part of 
wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty ? 
"Were we disposed to be of the number of those, who having 
eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so 
nearly concern their temporal salvation ? For his part, what- 
ever anguish of spirit it might cost, he was willing to know the 
whole truth ; to know the worst, and to provide for it. 

" He had," he said, "but one lamp by which his feet were 
guided ; and that was the lamp of experience. He knew of no 



PATRICK HENRY. 93 

way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by 
the past, he wished to know what there had been in the con- 
duct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify 
those hopes with which gentlemen had been pleased to solace 
themselves and the house ? Is it that insidious smile with 
which our petition has been lately received ? Trust it not, sir ; 
it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be 
betrayed with a kiss. 

" Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition 
comports with those warlike preparations which cover our 
waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary 
to a work of love and reconciliation ? Have we shown our- 
selves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called 
in to win back our love ? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. 
These are the implements of war and subjugation — the la^ar- 
guments to which kings resort. 

" I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its 
purpose be not to force us to submission ? Can gentlemen as- 
sign any other possible motive for it ? Has Great Britain any 
enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumu- 
lation of navies and armies ? No, sir, she has none. They 
are meant for us ; they can be meant for no other. They are 
sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the 
British ministry have been so long forging. And what have 
we to oppose them ? Shall we try argument ? Sir, we have 
been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything 
new to offer upon the subject ? Nothing. We have held the 
subject up in every light of which it is capable ; but it has been 
all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplica- 
tion ? What terms shall we find, which have not been already 
exhausted ? 

" Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. 
Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the 
storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned — we have 
remonstrated — we have supplicated — we have prostrated our- 
selves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to 
arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parliament. 
Our petitions have been slighted ; our remonstrances have pro- 
duced additional violence and insult; our supplications have 
been disregarded ; and we have been spurned, with contempt, 
from the foot of the throne. 

" In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope 
of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for 
hope. If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve in- 
violate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so 
long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble 



94 

struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which 
we have pledged ourselves never to abandon, until the glorious 
object of our contest shall be obtained ! — we must fight ! — I re- 
peat it, sir, we must fight ! ! ! An appeal to arms and to the 
God of hosts, is all that is left us !* 

" They tell us, sir," continued Mr. Henry, " that we are 
weak — ^unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But 
when shall we be stronger. Will it be the next week or the next 
year 1 Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a 
British guard shall be stationed in every house ? Shall we 
gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the 
means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, 
and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemy 
sh^ have bound us hand and foot ? Sir, we are not weak, 
if we make a proper use of those means which the God of na- 
ture hath placed in our power. 

"Three milHons of people armed in the holy cause of liberty, 
and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible 
by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, 
sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God 
who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise 
up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to 
the strong alone ; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. 
Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to 
desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There 
is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are 
forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston ! 
The war is inevitable — and let it come ! ! I repeat it, sir, let it 
come ! ! ! 

" It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may 
cry, peace, peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually 
begun ! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring 
to our ears the clash of resounding arms ! Our brethren are 
already in the field ! Why stand we here idle ? What is it 
that gentlemen wish ? What would they have ? Is life so 
dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of 
chains and slavery ? Forbid it. Almighty God ! — I know not 

♦"Imagine to yourself," says my correspondent, (Judge Tucker,) " this 
sentence delivered with all the calm dignity of Cato, of Utica — imagine to 
yourself the Roman senate, assembled in the capitol, when it was entered by 
the profane Gauls, who, at first, were awed by their presence, as if they had 
entered an assembly of the gods !— imagine that you heard that Cato addres- 
sing such a senate — imagine that you saw the handwriting on the wall of Bel- 
shazzar's palace — imagine you heard a voice as from heaven uttering the 
words : 'We must fight,'' as the doom of fate, and you may have some idea of 
the speaker, the assembly to whom he addressed himself, and the auditory, of 
which I was one." 



PATRICK HENRY. 05 

what course others may take ; but as for me," cried he, with both 
his arms extended aloft, his brows knit, every feature marked 
with the resolute purpose of his soul, and his voice swelled to 
its boldest note of exclamation — " give me liberty, or give me 
death !" ■ 

He took his seat. No murmur of applause was heard. The 
effect was too deep. After the trance of a moment, several 
members started from their seats. The cry, " to arms !" seem- 
ed to quiver on every lip, and gleam from every eye. Richard 
H. Lee arose and supported Mr. Henry, with his usual spirit 
and elegance. But his melody was lost amid the agitations of 
that ocean, which the master-spirit of the storm had lifted up 
on high. That supernatural voice still sounded in their ears, 
and shivered along their arteries. They heard, in every pause, 
the cry of liberty or death. They became impatient of speech, 
their souls were on fire for action.* 

The resolutions were adopted ; and Patrick Henry, Richard 
H. Lee, Robert C. Nicholas, Benjamin Harrison, Lemuel Rid- 
dick, George Washington, Adam Stevens, Andrew Lewis, Will- 
iam Christian, Edmund Pendleton, Thomas Jefferson, and 
Isaac Zane, esquires, were appointed a committee to prepare 
the plan called for by the last resolution.! 

* Mr. Randolph, in his manuscript history, has given a most eloquent and 
impressive account of this debate. Since these sheets were prepared for the 
press, and at the moment of their departure from the hands of the author, he 
has received from Chief Justice Marshall, a note in relation to the same de- 
bate, which he thinks too interesting to suppress. It is the substance of a 
statement made to the chief justice (then an ardent youth, feeling a most en- 
thusiastic admiration of eloquence, and panting for war) by his father, who 
was a member of this convention. Mr. Marshall, (the father,) after speaking 
of Mr. Henry's speech, " as one of the most bold, vehement, and animated 
pieces of eloquence that had ever been delivered," proceeded to state, that 
" he was followed by Mr. Richard H. Lee, who took a most interesting view 
of our real situation. He stated the force which Britain could probably bring 
to bear upon us, and reviewed our resources and means of resistance. He 
stated the advantages and disadvantages of both parties, and drew from this 
statement auspicious inferences. But he concluded with saying, admitting the 
probable calculations to be against us, we are assured in holy writ that " the 
race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong ; and if the language of 
genius may be added to inspiration, I will say with our immortal bard ; — 

*' ' Thrice is he armed, who hath his quarrel just ! 
And he but naked, though locked up in steel, 
Whose conscience with injustice is oppressed !' " 

t Colonel Robert Carter Nicholas (although opposed like all the older pa- 
triots, from the considerations which have been stated in the text, to resistance 
at this particular point of time) was, nevertheless, oue of the firmest support- 
ers of the principles of the revolution. As soon, therefore, as the measure ol 
resistance was carried, in order to give to it the greatest effect, he rose an^ 



96 WIRT S LIFE OF 

The constitution of this committee proves, that in those days 
of genuine patriotism there existed a mutual and noble confi- 
dence, which deemed the opponents of a measure no less wor- 
thy than its friends to assist in its execution. A correspond- 
ent, (Mr. Jefferson,) who bore himself a most distinguished 
part in our revolution, in speaking of the gentlemen whom I 
have just named, as having opposed Mr. Henry's resolutions, 
and of Mr. Wythe, who acted with them, says: — 

" These were honest and able men, who had begun the op- 
position on the same grounds, but with a moderation more 
adapted to their age and experience. Subsequent events fa- 
voured the bolder spirits of Henry, the Lees, Pages, Mason, 
&c., with whom I went in all points. Sensible, however, of 
the importance of unanimity among our constituents, although 
we often wished to have gone on faster, we slackened our pace, 
that our less ardent colleagues might keep up with us ; and 
they, on their part, differing nothing from us in principle, 
quickened their gait somewhat beyond that which their pru- 
dence might, of itself, have advised, and thus consolidated 
the phalanx which breasted the power of Britain. By this har- 
mony of the bold with the cautious, we advanced, with our 
constituents, in undivided mass, and with fewer examples of 
separation than perhaps existed in any other part of the union." 

The plan for imbodying, arming and disciplining the militia, 
proposed by the committee which has just been mentioned, 
was received and adopted, and is in the following terms : — 

" The committee propose that it be strongly recommended 
to the colony, diligently to put in execution the militia law 
passed in the year 1738, entitled, 'An act for the better regula- 
ting of the militia,' which has become in force by the expiration 
of all subsequent militia laws. 

" The committee are further of opinion, that as, from the ex- 
piration of the abovementioned laws, and varioufe other causes, 
the legal and necessary disciplining the militia has been much 
neglected, and a proper provision of arms and ammunition has 
not been made, to the evident danger of the community, in 
case of invasion or insurrection ; that it be recommended to 
the inhabitants of the several counties of this colony, that they 
form one or more volunteer companies of infantry and troops 
of horse in each county, and to be in constant training and 
readiness to act on any emergency. 

*' That it be recommended particularly to the counties of 

moved to change the system ; and, instead of arming the militia, to raise ten 
thousand regulars for the war ; but the motion was overruled. Chief Justice 
Marshall says : "I have frequently heard my father speak of Colonel Nkho- 
.«s's motion, to raise ten thousand men for the war." 



PATRICK HENRY. 97 

Brunswick, Dinwiddle, Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover, Spot- 
sylvania, King George, and Stafford, and to all counties below 
these, that, out of such of their volunteers, they form, each of 
them, one or more troops of horse ; and to all the counties 
above these, it is recommended that they pay a more particular 
attention to forming a good infantry. 

" That each company of infantry consist of sixty-eight, rank 
and file, to be commanded by one captain, two lieutenants, one 
ensign, four sergeants, and lour corporals ; and that they have 
a drummer, and be furnished with a drum and colours ; that 
every man be provided with a good rifle, if to be had, or other- 
wise with a common firelock, ba)-onet, and cartouch-box, and 
also with a tomahawk, one pound of gunpowder, and four 
pounds of ball at least, fitted to the bore of his gun ; that he 
be clothed in a hunling-shirt, by way of uniform ; and that 
he use all endeavour, as soon as possible, to become acquainted 
with the military exercise for infantry, appointed to be used by 
his majesty in the year seventeen hundred and sixty-four. 

"That each troop of horse consist of thirty, exclusive of 
officers ; that every horseman be provided with a good horse, 
bridle, saddle, with pistols and holsters, a carbine or other 
short firelock, with a bucket, a cutting-sword or tomahawk, 
one pound of gunpowder, and four pounds of ball, at least ; 
and use the utmost diligence in training and accustoming his 
horse to stand the discharge of firearms, and in making himself 
acquainted with the military exercise of cavalry. 

" That in order to make a further and more ample provision 
of ammunition, it be recommended to the committees of the 
several counties, that they collect from their constituents, in 
such manner as shall be most agreeable to them, so much 
money as will be sufficient to purchase half a pound of gun- 
powder, one pound of lead, necessary flints and cartridgepaper, 
for every titheable person in their county ; that they immedi- 
ately take effectual measures for the procuring such gunpow- 
der, lead, flints, and cartridgepaper, and dispose thereof, when 
procured, in such place or places of safety as they may think 
best : and it is earnestly recommended to each individual to 
pay such proportion of the money necessary for these pur- 
poses, as by the respective committees shall be judged requisite. 

" That it may happen that some counties, from their situa- 
tion, may not be apprized of the most certain and speedy meth- 
od of procuring the articles before-mentioned, one general com- 
mittee should be appointed, whose business it should be, to 
procure for such counties as may make application to them, 
such articles, and so much thereof, as the moneys wherewith they 
shall furnish the said committee will purchase, after deducting 

9 



TO WIRT S LIFE OF 

• 

the charges of transportation, and other necessary expenses." 
At the same session of the convention, I find that the alert 
and inquiring spirit of Mr. Henry laid hold of another instance 
of royal misrule. 

Governor Dunmore, it seems, by a recent proclamation, had 
declared that his majesty had given orders for all vacant lands 
within this colony to be put up in lots at public sale ; and that 
the highest bidder for such lots should be the purchaser thereof, 
and should hold the same, subject to a reservation of one half- 
penny per acre, by way of annual quitrent, and of all mines of 
gold, silver, and precious stones. These terms were deemed 
an innovation on the established usage of granting lands in 
this colony ; and this sagacious politician saw in the proceed- 
ing, not only an usurpation of power, but a great subduction 
of the natural wealth of the colony, and the creation, moreover, 
of a separate band of tenants and retainers, devoted to the vilest 
measures of the crown. With a view, therefore, to defeat 
this measure, he moved the following resolution, which was 
adopted : — 

" Resolved, That a committee be appointed to inquire whether 
his majesty may of right advance the terms of granting lands 
in this colony, and make report thereof to the next general as- 
sembly or convention ; and that, in the meantime, it be recom- 
mended to all persons whatever, to forbear purchasing or ac- 
cepting lands on the conditions before mentioned." Of this 
connnittee he was of course the chairman ; and the other mem- 
bers were Richard Bland, Thomas Jefferson, Robert C. Nicho- 
las, and Edmund Pendleton, esquires. 

The convention having adopted a plan for the encourage- 
ment of arts and manufactures in this colony, and reappointed 
their former deputies to the continental congress, with the sub- 
stitution of Mr. Jefferson for Mr. Peyton Randolph, in case of 
the non-attendance of the latter ;* and having also provided 
for a re-election of delegates to the next convention, came to an 
adjournment. It is curious to read in the file of papers from 
which the foregoing proceedings are extracted, and immedi- 
ately following them, this proclamation of his Excellency Lord 
Dunmore : — 

" Whereas, certain persons, styling themselves delegates of 
several of his majesty's colonies in America, have presumed, 
without his majesty's authority or consent, to assemble together 
at Philadelphia, in the months of September and October last, 
and have thought fit, among other unwarrantable proceedings, 

* He was speaker of the house of burgesses, a call of which was expected, 
and did accordingly take place. 



PATRICK HENKY. 99 

to resolve that it wiL be necessary that another congress should 
be held at the same place on the tenth of May. next, unless re- 
dress of certain pretended grievances be obtained before thai 
time : and to recommend that all the colonies of North America 
should choose deputies to attend such congress : / am com- 
manded by the king, and I do accordingly issue this my proc- 
lamation, to require all magistrates and other officers to use 
their utmost endeavours to prevent any such appointment of 
deputies, and to exhort all persons whatever within this govern- 
ment, to desist from such an unjustifiable proceeding, so highly 
displeasing to his majesty." 

This proclamation was published while the convention was 
in session, and was obviously designed to have an eflect on 
their proceedings. It passed by them, however, "as the idle 
wind which they regarded not." The age of proclamations 
was gone, and the glory of regal governors pretty nearly ex- 
tinguished for ever. 

It ought not to be omitted, however, that this very conven- 
tion passed resolutions complimentary to Lord Dunmore, and 
the troops which he had commanded in an expedition of the 
preceding year against the Indians : a compliment which, as 
we shall see, was afterward found to be unmerited. As the 
resolution in regard to Lord Dunmore does honour to the can- 
dour of the convention, and shows also how little personality 
there was in the contest, I take leave to subjoin it : — 

" Resolved, unanimously, That the most cordial thanks of 
the people of this colony are a tribute justly due to our worthy 
governor. Lord Dunmore, for his truly noble, wise, and spirited 
conduct, on the late expedition against our Indian enemy — a 
conduct which at once evinces his excellency's attention to the 
true interests of this colony, and a zeal in the executive depart- 
ment which no dangers can divert, or difficulties hinder, from 
achieving the most important services to the people who have 
the happiness to live under his administration." 

Lord Dunmore was not a man of popular manners ; he had 
nothing of the mildness, the purity, the benevolence and suav- 
ity of his predecessor. On the contrary, he is represented as 
having been rude and offensive ; coarse in his figure, his coun- 
tenance and his manners. Yet he received from the house of 
burgesses the most marked respect. 

Thus, in seventeen hundred and seventy-four, while the lib- 
erties of the colonies were bleeding at every pore, and while 
the house was smarting severely, under the recent news of the 
occlusion of the port of Boston, they paid to Lady Dunmore, 
who had just arrived at Williamsburgh, the most cordial and 
elegant attentions, congratulated his Lordship on this increase 



IW wirt's life of 

to his domestic felicity ; and even, after their abrupt dissolu 
lion, complimented the inhabitants of the palace with a splendio 
ball and entertainment, in honour of the arrival of the Count 
ess Dunmore and her family. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Export of Powder from Great Britain prohibited — Seizure of the Military 
Stores in Massachusetts and other Colonics — Magazine at WilUanisburgh 
plundered by Order of Governor Dunmore — Address of the Common Coun- 
cil — Lord Dunmore's Reply — Excitement occasioned by the Proceedings — 
Mr- Henry's View as to the Result of these Events — He is invested with the 
Command of the Hanover Volunteers and marches for Williamsburgh — 
The Atfair of the Powder Compromised — Lord Dunmore's Proclamation 
against Mr. Henry. 

The storm of the revolution now began to thicken. The 
cloud of war had actually burst on the New England states, 
while as yet the middle and southern colonies were in compar- 
ative repose. The calm, however, was deceitful, and of short 
duration ; and, as far as Virginia was concerned, had been oc- 
casioned rather by the absence of Governor Dunmore on an 
Indian expedition, than any disposition on his part to favour 
the colony. His return to Williamsburgh was the signal for 
violence. 

It seems to have been a matter of concert among the colonial 
governors, if indeed the policy was not dictated by the British 
court, to disarm the people of all the colonies at one and the 
same time, and thus incapacitate them for united resistance. 

To give effect to this measure, the export of powder from 
Great Britain was prohibited ; and an attempt was generally 
made about the same period to seize the powder and arms in 
the several provincial magazines. Gage, the successor of 
Hutchinson in the government of Massachusetts, set the exam- 
ple, by a seizure of the ammunition and military stores at Cam- 
bridge, and the powder in the magazines at Charlestown, and 
other places. His example was followed by similar attempts 
in other colonies to the north. 

And on Thursday, the twentieth of April, seventeen hundred 
and seventy-five, Captain Henry Collins, of the armed schooner 
Magdalen, then lying at Burv/ell's ferry, on James river, came 
up at the head of a body of marines, and, acting; under the or- 
ders of Lord Dunmore, entered the city of Williamsburgh in 



PATiliCK HENRY. 101 

the dead of the night, and carried off from the public maga- 
aine about twenty barrels of powder, which he placed on board 
his schooner before the break of day. 

Clandestine as the movement had been, the alarm was given 
to the inhabitants early on the next morning. Their exaspera- 
tion may be easily conceived. The town was in tumult. A 
considerable body of them flew to arms, with the determination 
to compel Captain Collins to restore the powder. With much 
difficulty, however, they were restrained by the graver inhab- 
itants of the town, and by the members of the common council, 
who assured them that proper measures should be immediately 
used to produce a restoration of the powder, without the effu- 
sion of human blood. The council, therefore, met in their cor- 
porate character, and addressed the following letter to Gov- 
ernor Dunmore : — 

" To his Excellency the Right Honourable John, Earl of Dun- 
more, his majesty's lieutenant, governor-general, and com- 
mander-in-chief of the colony and dominion of Virginia : — 
The humble address of the mayor, recorder, aldermen, and 
common council of the city of Williamsburgh : — 
"My Lord — We, his majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, 
the mayor, recorder, aldermen and common council of the city 
of Williamsburgh, in common hall assembled, humbly beg 
leave to represent to your excellency, that the inhabitants of 
this city were this morning exceedingly alarmed by a report 
that a large quantity of gunpowder was, in the preceding night, 
while they were sleeping in their beds, removed from the pub- 
lic magazine in this city, and conveyed under an escort of ma 
rines, on board one of his majesty's armed vessels lying at a 
ferry on James river. 

" We beg leave to represent to your excellency, that, as the 
magazine was erected at the public expense of this colony, and 
appropriated to the safe-keeping of such munition as should be 
there lodged, from time to time, for the protection and security of 
the country, by arming thereout such of the militia as might be 
necessary in cases of invasions and insurrections, they humbly 
conceive it to be the only proper repository to be resorted to 
in times of imminent danger. 

" We further beg leave to inform your excellency, that from 
various reports at present prevailing in different parts of the 
country, we have too much reason to believe that some wicked 
and designing persons have instilled the most diabolical no- 
tions into the minds of our slaves; and that, therefore, the utmost 
attention to our internal security is become the more necessary. 
" The circumstances of this city, my lord, we consider as 
peculiar and critical. The inhabitants, from the situation of 

9' 



102 wirt's life of 

the magazine in the midst of their city, have for a long tract of 
time, been exposed to all those dangers which have happened 
in many countries from explosions and other accidents. They 
have, from time to time, thought it incumbent on them to guard 
the magazine. For their security they have, for some time 
past, judged it necessary to keep strong patrols on foot ; in 
their present circumstances, then, to have the chief and ne- 
cessary means of their defence removed, cannot but be extreme- 
ly alarming. 

" Considering ourselves as guardians of the city, we there- 
fore humbly desire to be informed by your excellency, upon 
what motives, and for what particular purpose, the powder has 
been carried off in such a manner ; and we earnestly entreat 
your excellency to order it to be immediately returned to the 
magazine." 

To which his excellency returned this verbal answer: — 
that "hearing of an insurrection in a neighbouring county, he 
had removed the powder from the magazine, where he did not 
think it secure, to a place of perfect security ; and that, upon 
his word and honour, whenever it was wanted on any insurrec- 
tion, it should be delivered in half an hour; that he had re- 
moved it in the night-time, to prevent any alarm, and that Cap- 
tain Collins had his express commands for the part he had 
acted ; he was surprised to hear the people were under arms 
on this occasion, and that he should not think it prudent to put 
powder into their hands in such a situation." 

This conditional promise of the return of the powder, sup- 
ported by the influence of Mr. Peyton Randolph, Mr. Robert 
C. Nicholas, and other characters of weight, had the eflect, it 
seems, of quieting the inhabitants for that day. On the suc- 
ceeding night, however, a new alarm took place, on a report 
that a number of armed men had again landed from the Magda- 
len, about four miles below the city, with a view, it was pre- 
sumed, of making another visit of nocturnal plunder. The in- 
habitants again flew to arms ; but, on the interposition of the 
same eminent citizens, the ferment was allayed, and nothing 
more was done than to strengthen the usual patrol for the de- 
fence of the city. 

On the next day, Saturday the twenty-second of April, when 
everything was perfectly quiet, Lord Dunmore, with rather 
more heat than discretion, sent a message into the city, by one 
of the magistrates, and which his lordship had delivered with 
the most solemn asseverations, that if any insult were offered 
to Captain Foy, (a British captain residing at the palace, as 
his secretary, and considered to be the instigator of the gov- 
ernor to his violences,) or to Captain Collins, he would declare 



PAXniCK HENRY. 103 

freedom to the slaves, and lay the town in ashes; and he add- 
ed, that he could easily depopulate the whole country. At 
this time, both Captains Foy and Collins were and had been 
continually walking the streets, at their pleasure, without 
the slightest indication of disrespect. The effect of a threat, 
so diabolically ferocious, directed toward the people who had 
ever shown him and his family such enthusiastic marks of re- 
spect and attention, and following so directly the plunder^of 
the magazine, will be readily conceived. Yet it broke not out 
into any open act. His lordship remained unmolested even by 
a disrespectful look. The augmented patrol was kept up ; but 
no defensive preparation was made by the inhabitants of the 
city. 

The transactions which were passing in the metropolis circu- 
lated through the country with a rapidity proportioned to their 
Interests, and with this farther aggravation, which was also 
true in point of fact, that in addition to the clandestine removal 
of the powder, the governor had caused the muskets in tlie 
magazine to be stripped of their locks. 

In the midst of the irritation excited by this intelligence, 
came the news of the bloody battles of Lexington and Con- 
cord, resulting from an attempt of the governor-general Gage, 
to seize the military stores deposited at the latter place. The 
system of colonial subjugation was now apparent : the effect 
was instantaneous. The whole country flew to arms. The 
independent companies, formed in happier times for the pur- 
pose of military discipline, and under the immediate auspices 
of Lord Dunmore himself, raised the standard of liberty in 
every county. 

By the twenty-seventh of April, there was assembled at 
Fredericksburgh upward of seven hundred men well-armed and 
disciplined, " friends of constitutional liberty and America." 
Their march, however, was arrested by a letter from Mr. Pey- 
ton Randolph, in reply to an express, and received on the 
twenty-ninth, by which they were informed that the gentlemen 
of the city and neighbourhood of Williamsburgh, had had full 
assurance from his excellency, that the affair of the powder 
should be accommodated, and advising that the gentlemen of 
Fredericksburgh should proceed no farther. 

On the receipt of this letter, a council was held of one hun- 
dred and two members, delegates of the provincial convention, 
and officers and special deputies of fourteen companies of light- 
horse, then rendezvoused on the ground ; who, after the most 
spirited expression of their sentiments on the conduct of the 
governor, and after giving a mutual pledge to be in readiness 
at a moment's warning, to reassemble, and by force of armg 



.104 wirt's life of 

to defend the laws, the liberty, and rights of this or any sister- 
colony from unjust and wicked invasion, advised the return of 
the several companies to their respective homes ; and also or- 
dered that expresses should be despatched to the troops assem- 
bled at the Bowling Green, and also to the companies from 
Frederick, Berkley, Dunmore, and such other counties as were 
then on their march, to return them thanks for their cheerful 
offers of service, and to acquaint them with the determination 
then taken. By way of parody on the governor's conclusion 
of the proclamations, by which he was striving to keep down 
the spirit of the country, "God save the king," the council con- 
cluded their address with "God save the liberties of America." 

Mr. Henry, however, was not disposed to let this incident 
pass off so lightly. His was a mind that watched events with 
the coolness and sagacity of a veteran statesman. He kindled, 
indeed, in the universal indignation which the conduct of the 
governor was so well calculated to excite ; seeing clearly the 
inconvenience which the colony must experience in the ap- 
proaching contest, from the loss of even that small store of am- 
munition. This, however, was a minor object in his esteem. 

What he deemed of much higher importance was, that that 
blow, which must be struck sooner or later, should he struck at 
once, before an overwhelming force should enter the colony ; 
that that habitual deference and subjection which the people 
were accustomed to feel toward the governor, as the represent- 
ative of royalty, and which bound their spirits in a kind of tor- 
pid spell, should be dissolved and dissipated ; that the military 
resources of the country should be developed ; that the people 
might see and feel their strength by being brought out togeth- 
er : that the revolution should be set in actual motion in the 
colony ; that the martial prowess of the country should be 
awakened, and the soldiery animated by that proud and reso- 
lute confidence, which a successful enterprise in the commence- 
ment of a contest never fails to inspire. 

These sentiments were then avowed by him to two confiden- 
tial friends ;* to whom he farther declared that he considered 
the outrage on the magazine a most fortunate circumstance ; 
and as one which would rouse the people from north to south, 
"You may in vain talk to them," said he, "about the duties 
on tea, &c. These things will not affect them. They depend 
on principles too abstracted for their apprehension and feeling. 
But tell them of the robbery of the magazine, and that the next 
step will be to disarm them, you bring the subject home to 

* Colonel Richard Morris and Captain George Dabney ; on the authority 
of Mr. Dabney. 



PATRICK HENRY. 1(^ 

their bosoms, and they will be ready to fly to arms to defend 
thenselves." 

To make of this circumstance all the advantage which he 
contemplated, as soon as the intelligence reached him from 
Williamsburgh, he sent express-riders to the members of the 
Independent Company of Hanover, who were dispersed and 
resided in different parts of the country, requesting them to 
meet him in arms, at New Castle, on the second of May, on 
business of the highest importance to American liberty. In 
order to give greater dignity and authority to the decisions of 
that meeting, he convoked to the same place the county com- 
mittee. 

When assembled, he addressed them with all the powers oi 
his eloquence ; laid open the plan on which the British minis- 
try had fallen to reduce the colonies to subjection, by robbing 
them of all the means of defending their rights ; spread before 
their eyes, in colours of vivid description, the fields of Lexing- 
ton and Concord, still floating with the blood of their country- 
men, gloriously shed in the general cause ; showed them that the 
recent plunder of the magazine in Williamsburgh was nothing 
more than a part of the general system of subjugation ; that 
the moment was now come in which they were called upon to 
decide, whether they chose to live free, and hand down the 
noble inheritance to their children, or to become hewers of 
wood, and drawers of water to those lordlings, who were them- 
selves the tools of a corrupt and tyrannical ministry — he paint- 
ed the country in a state of subjugation, and drew such pictures 
of wretched debasement and abject vassalage, as filled their 
souls with horror and indignation — on the other hand, he car- 
ried them, by the powers of his eloquence, to an eminence like 
Mount Pisgah ; showed them the land of promise, which was 
to be won by their valour, under the support and guidance of 
Heaven ; and sketched a vision of America, enjoying the smiles 
of liberty and peace, the rich productions of her agriculture 
waving on every field, her commerce whitening every sea, in 
teints so bright, so strong, so glowing, as set the souls of his 
hearers on fire. 

He had no doubt, he said, that that God, who in former ages 
had hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he might show forth his 
power and glory in the redemption of his chosen people, had, 
for similar purposes, permitted the flagrant outrages which had 
occurred in Williamsburgh, and throughout the continent. It 
was for them now to determine, whether they were worthy of 
this divine interference ; whether they would accept the high 
boon now held out to them by Heaven — that if they would, 
though it might lead them through a sea of blood, they were 



•106 wirt's life of 

to remember that the same (jod whose power divided the Red 
sea for the deliverance of Israel, still reigned in all his glory, 
unchanged and unchangeable — was still the enemy of the op- 
pressor, and the friend of the oppressed — that he would cover 
them from their enemies by a pillar of cloud by day, and guide 
their feet through the night by a pillar of fire — that for his own 
part, he was anxious that his native county should distinguish 
itself in this grand career of liberty and glory, and snatch the 
noble prize which was now offered to their grasp — that no time 
was to be lost — that their enemies in this colony were now few 
and weak — that it would be easy for them, by a rapid and vig- 
orous movement, to compel the restoration of the powder 
which had been carried off, or to make a reprisal on the king's 
revenues in the hands of the receiver-general, which would 
fairly balance the account — that the Hanover volunteers would 
thus have an opportunity of striking the first blow in this colo- 
ny, in the great cause of American liberty, and would cover 
themselves with never-fading laurels. 

These were heads of his harangue. I presume not to give 
the colouring. That was Mr. Henry's own, and beyond the 
power of any man's imitation. The effect, however, was equai 
to his wishes. The meeting was in a flame, and a decision im- 
mediately taken, that the powder should be retrieved, or coun 
terbalanced by a reprisal. 

Captain Samuel Meredith, who had heretofore commanded 
the Independent Company, resigned his commission in Mr. 
Henry's favour, and the latter gentleman was immediately in- 
vested with the chief command of the Hanover volunteers. Mr. 
Meredith accepted the commission of lieutenant ; and the pres- 
ent Colonel Parke Goodall was appointed the ensign of the 
company. Having received orders from the committee, cor- 
respondent with his own suggestions, Captain Henry forthwith 
took up his line of March for Williamsburgh. 

Ensign Goodall was detached, with a party of sixteen men, 
to cross the river into King William county, the residence of 
Richard Corbin, the king's receiver-general ; to demand from 
him three hundred and thirty pounds, the estimated value of 
the powder ; and, in the event of his refusal to make him a pris- 
oner. He was ordered, in this case, to treat his person with 
all possible respect and tenderness, and to bring him to Don- 
castle's ordinary, about sixteen miles above Williamsburgh, 
where the ensign was required, at all events, to rejoin the main 
body. 

The detachment, in pursuance of their orders, reached the 
residence of the receiver-general some hours after bedtime, and 
a guard was stationed around the house until morning. About 



PATRICK HENRY, 107 

daybreak, however, the ladies of the family made their appear- 
ance, and gave the commanding officer of the detachment the 
firm and correct assurance, that Colonel Corbin was not at 
home ; but that the house, nevertheless, was open to search, if 
it was the pleasure of the officer to make it. The manner of 
the assurance, however, was too satisfactory to render this ne- 
cessary, and the detachment hastened to form the junction with 
the main body which had been ordered. 

In the meantime, the march of his gallant corps, in arms, 
headed by a man of Mr. Henry's distinction, produced the 
most striking effects in every quarter. Corresponding compa- 
nies started up on all sides, and hastened to throw themselves 
under the banners of Henry. It is believed that five thousand 
men at least, M^ere in arms, and were crossing the country 
to crowd around his standard, and support it with their lives. 
The march was conducted in the most perfect order, and with 
the most scrupulous respect to the country through which they 
passed. The ranks of the royalists were filled with dismay. 
Lady Dunmore, with her family, retired to the Fowey man-of- 
war, then lying off the town of Little York. Even the patriots 
in Williamsburgh were daunted by the boldness, and, as they 
deemed it, the rashness of the enterprise. 

Messenger after messenger was despatched to meei Mr. 
Henry on the way, and beg him to desist from his purpose, 
and discharge his men. It was in vain. He was inflexibly 
resolved to effect the purpose of his expedition or to perish in 
the attempt. The messengers were therefore detained, that 
they might not report his strength ; and the march was contin- 
ued with all possible celerity. The governor issued a procla- 
mation, in which he denounced the movement, and called upon 
the people of the country to resist it. He could as easily have 
called " spirits from the vasty deep." He seems not to have 
relied much, himself, on the efficacy of his proclamation. The 
palace was therefore filled with arms, and a detachment of ma- 
rines ordered up from the Fowey. Before daybreak, on the 
morning of the fourth of May, Captain Montague, the com- 
mander of that ship, landed a party of men, with the following 
letter, addressed to the Honourable Thomas Nelson, the presi- 
dent of his majesty's council: — 

" Fowey, May 4th, 1775. 

" Sir, — I'^ have this morning received certain information 
that his excellency Lord Dunmore, governor of Virgina, is 
threatened with an attack at daybreak, this morning, at his pal- 
ace in Williamsburgh, and have thought proper to send a de- 
tachment from his majesty's ship under my command, to sup- 
port his excellency : therefore strongly pray you to make use 



XiHB wirt's life of 

of every endeavour to prevent the party from being molested 
and attacked, as in that case I must be under a necessity to fire 
upon this town. From 

"George Montague." 

Lord Dunmore, however, thought better of this subject, and 
caused Mr. Henry to be met at Doncastle's, about sunrise on 
the same morning, with the receiver-general's bill of exchange, 
for the sum required. It was accepted as a satisfaction for 
the powder, and the following receipt was passed by Mr. 
Henry : — 

^^Doncastle^s Ordinary, New Kent, May ith, 1775. 

" Received from the Honourable Richard Corbin, Esq., his 
majesty's receiver-general, three hundred and thirty pounds, as 
a compensation for the gunpowder lately taken out of the pub- 
lic magazine by the governor's order ; which money I promise 
to convey to the Virginia delegates at the general congress, to 
be, under their direction, laid out in gunpowder for the colo- 
ny's use, and to be stored as they shall direct, until the next 
colony convention, or general assembly ; unless it shall be ne- 
cessary, in the meantime, to use the same in the defence of this 
colony. It is agreed, that in case the next convention shall 
determine that any part of the said money ought to be returned 
to his majesty's said receiver-general, that the same shall be 
done accordingly. "Patrick Henry, jun. 

" Test — Samuel Meredith, 
Parke Goodall." 

The march of the marines from the Fowey had, however, 
produced the most violent commotion both in York* and Wil- 

* " The town of York being somewhat alarmed by a letter from Captain 
Montague, commander of his majesty's ship the Fowey, addressed to the Hon. 
Thomas Nelson, esquire, president of his majesty's council in Virginia ; and a 
copy of said letter being procured, a motion was made, that the copy should 
be laid before the committee, and considered. The copy was read, and is as 
follows : — 

" ' Fowey, May 4, 1775. 

" ' Sir — I have this morning received certain information that his excellency 
the Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, is threatened with an attack at day- 
break this morning, at his palace in Williamsburgh, and have thought proper to 
send a detachment from his majesty's ship under my command to support his 
excellency ; therefore, strongly pray you to make use of every endeavour to 
prevent the party from being molested and attacked, as in that case I must be 
under the necessity to tire upon this town. From George Montague. 

"To the Hon. Thomas Nelson.^ 

"The committee, together with Capt. Montague's letter taking into consid- 
eration the time of its being sent, which was too late to permit the president to 
use his influence, had the inhabitants been disposed to molest and attack the 
detachment ; and further considering that Col. Nelson, who, had his threat 
been carried into execution, must have been a principal sufferer, was at that 



PATRICK HENR7. 109 

liamsburgh, Mr. Henry himself seemed to apprehend that the 
public treasury would be the next object of depredation and 
that a pretext would be sought for it in the reprisal which had 
just been made. He therefore addressed, from Doncastle's, 
the following letter to Robert Carter Nicholas, esquire, the 
treasurer of the colony : — 

"May 4, 1775. 

" Sir — The affair of the powder is now settled, so as to pro- 
duce satisfaction to me, and I earnestly wish to the colony in 
general. The people here have it in charge from Hanover 
committee, to tender their service to you, as a public officer, 
for the purpose of escorting the public treasury to any place 
in this colony, where the money would be judged more safe 
than in the city of Williamsburgh. The reprisal now made by 
the Hanover volunteers, though accomplished in a manner less 
liable to the imputation of violent extremity, may possibly be 
the cause of future injury to the treasury. If, therefore, you 
apprehend the least danger, a sufficient guard is at your service. 
I beg the return of the bearer may be instant, because the men 
wish to know their destination. With great regard, I am, sir, 
your most humble servant, " Patrick Henry, jun." 

To this letter an answer was received from Mr. Nicholas, 
importing that he had no apprehension of the necessity, or pro- 
priety of the proffered service : and Mr. Henry understanding, 
also, that the private citizens of Williamsburgh were in a great 
measure quieted from their late fears for their persons and 
property, judged it proper to proceed no farther. Their expe- 
dition having been crowned with success, the volunteers return- 
ed in triumph to their respective homes. 

The committee of Hanover again met ; gave them their 
warmest thanks for the vigour and propriety with which they 

very moment exerting his utmost endeavours in behalf of government, and the 
safety of his excellency's person, unanimously come to the following resolu- 
tions : — 

" Resolved, That Capt. Montague, in threatening to fire upon a defenceless 
town, in case of an attack upon the detachment, in which said town might not 
be concerned, has testified a spirit of cruelty unprecedented in the annals of 
civilized times ; that, in his late notice to the president, he has added insult 
to cruelty ; and that considering the circumstances already mentioned, of one 
of the most considerable inhabitants of said town, he has discovered the most 
hellish principles that can actuate a human mind. 

" Resolved, That it be recommended to the inhabitants of this town, and 
to the country in general, that they do not entertain or show any other mark of 
civility to Capt. Montague, besides what common decency and absolute neces- 
sity require. 

" Resolved, That the clerk do transmit the above proceedings to the public 
printers, to be inserted in the Virginia gazettes. 

(A true copy,) " William Russell, Cl'k Com." 

10 



no wirt's life of 

had conducted the enterprise ; and returned their acknowledg- 
ments, in suitable terms, to the many vohmteers of the differ- 
ent counties, who joined and were marching, and ready to co- 
operate with the volunteer company of Hanover. 

Two days after the return of the volunteers, and when all 
was again quiet, the governor thundered the following anathe- 
ma from the palace : — 

"By his excellency, the Right Honourable John, Earl of 
Dunmore, his majesty's lieutenant and governor-general of the 
colony and dominion of Virginia, and vice-admiral of the 
same : — 

"A PROCLAMATION. 

*' Virginia, to wit : — Whereas, I have been informed, from 
undoubted authority, that a certain Patrick Henry, of the 
county of Hanover, and a number of deluded followers, have 
taken up arms, chosen their officers, and styling themselves 
an Independent Company, have marched out of their county, 
encamped, and put themselves in a posture of war ; and have 
written and despatched letters to divers parts of the country, 
exciting the people to join in these outrageous and rebellious 
practices, to the great terror of his majesty's faithful subjects, 
and in open defiance of law and government ; and have com- 
mitted other acts of violence, particularly in extorting from his 
majesty's receiver-general the sum of three hundred and thirty 
pounds, under pretence of replacing the powder I thought 
proper to order from the magazine : whence it undeniably ap- 
pears, that there is no longer the least security for the life or 
property of any man ; wherefore I have thought proper with 
the advice of his majesty's council, and in his majesty's name, 
to issue this my proclamation, strictly charging all persons 
upon their allegiance, not to aid, abet, or give countenance to 
the said Patrick Henry, or any other persons concerned in 
such unwarrantable combinations ; but, on the contrary, to op- 
pose them and their designs by every means ; which designs 
must otherwise inevitably involve the whole country in the 
most direful calamity, as they will call for the vengeance of 
offended majesty, and the insulted laws, to be exerted here to 
vindicate the constitutional authority of government. 

" Given under my hand and seal of the colony, at Wil- 
liamsburgh, this sixth day of May, seventeen hundred and 
seventy-five, and in the fifteenth year of his majesty's 
reign. ** Dunmore. 

" God save the king." ' 

But Lord Dunmore's threats and denunciations had no other 
effect than to render more conspicuous and more honourable the 



PATRICE HENRT. Hit 

man who was the object of them. Mr. Henry, who had been on 
the point of setting out for congress at the time when he had 
been called off by the intelligence from Williamsburgh, now 
resumed his journey, and was escorted in triumph by a large 
party of gentlemen, as far as Hooe's ferry, on the Potomac. 
Messengers were sent after him from all directions, bearing 
the thanks and the applauses of his assembled countrymen, 
for his recent enterprise ; and in such throngs did these ad- 
dresses come, that the necessity of halting to read and answer 
them converted a journey of one day into a triumph of many. 
Thus the same man, whose genius had in the year seventeen 
hundred and sixty-five given the first political impulse to the 
revolution, had now the additional honour of heading the first 
military movement in Virginia, in support of the same cause. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Second Session of the Delegates to Congress — Attachment of the People of 
Virginia to Lady Dunmcre — Barbarous Proceeding of Lord Dunmore — 
Takes his Residence on board the Fowey — His Correspondence with the 
Committee — Mr. Henry is appointed Colonel of one of the Regiments raised 
by the Colonial Convention — Tender of the British sloop Otter is burnt by 
the People — Correspondence with Capt. Squire in relation to that Event — 
Lord Dunmore heads a Body of Recruits — Col. Woodford is sent to oppose 
his Progress — Circumstances leading to Mr. Henry's resignation — He is 
elected a Delegate to the Convention — Declaration of Rights — Mr. Henry 
elected Governor of Virginia — Addresses connected with that Event. 

I CANNOT learn that Mr. Henry distinguished himself pe- 
culiarly at this session of congress. The spirit of resistance 
was sufiiciently excited ; and nothing remained but to organize 
that resistance, and to plan and execute the details which were 
to give it effect. In business of this nature, Mr. Henry as we 
have seen, was not efficient. It has been already stated that 
he was unsuccessful in composition, of which much was done, 
and eminently done, at this session ; and the lax habits of his 
early life had implanted in him an insuperable aversion to the 
drudgery of details. He could not endure confinement of any 
sort, nor the labour of close and solitary thinking. 

His habits were all social, and his mind delighted in unlimited 
range. His conclusions were never reached by an elaborate 
deduction of thought; he gained them as it were jier saltern; 
yet with a certainty not less infallible than that of the driest 
and severest logician. It is not wonderful, therefore, that he 



113 

felt himself lost amid the operations in which congress was 
now engaged, and that he enjoyed the relief which was afford- 
ed him, by a military appointment from his native state. It 
will be proper, however, to explain particularly the proceed- 
ings which led to this incident in the life of Mr. Henry. 

Shortly after the affair of the gunpowder, Lord North's con- 
ciliatory proposition, popularly called the Olive Branch, arrived 
in America. Hereupon the governor of Virginia called a 
meeting of the house of burgesses ; and as if the quarrel were 
now completely over, Lady Dunmore and her family returned 
from the Fowey to the palace. 

If an estimate may be formed from the newspapers of the 
day, into which the people seem to have poured their fee»V -^«, 
without reserve, that lady was eminently a favourite m this 
colony. Her residence here had been short ; yet the exalted 
virtues which marked her character, and those domestic graces 
and attractions which shone with the more lustre by contrast 
with his lordship, had already endeared her to the people; and 
would have consecrated her person, and those of her children, 
amid the wildest tumult to which this colony could possibly 
be excited. The people had been extremely wounded by her 
late departure for the Fowey : they considered it as a measure 
of his lordship, and as an unjust reflection both upon the judg- 
ment and generosity of the people of this country. 

They had told him intelligibly enough, that they had formed 
a much more correct estimate of her worth than he himself ap- 
peared to have done ; and that so far from her being insecure 
in the bosom of a people who thus admired, respected, and 
loved her, his lordship would have acted much more wisely to 
have kept her near his person, and covered himself under the 
sacred shield which sanctified her in the eyes of Virginians. 
In proportion to their regret and mortification at her depar- 
ture, was the ardour of delight with which they hailed her re- 
turn. A paragraph in Purdie's paper assured her, that "her 
arrival at the palace was to the great joy of the citizens of 
VVilliamsburgh, and of the people of the whole country, who 
had the most unfeigned regard and affection for her ladyship, 
and wished her long to live among them." 

On Thursday, the first of June, the general assembly accord- 
ing to the proclamation of Lord Dunmore, met at the capitol 
in the city of Williamsburgh. He addressed them with great 
earnestness on ihe alarming state of the colony ; and exhibited 
the conciliatory proposition of the British ministry, as an ad- 
vance on the part of the mother-country, which it was the duty 
of the colonists to meet with gratitude and devotion. The 
council answered him in a manner perfectly satisfactory ; but 



PATRICK HENRY. |18 

before he could receive the answer of the house of burgesses, 
an incident occurred, which drove his lordship precipitatel) 
from his palace, and terminated for ever all friendly relations 
between himself and the people of Virginia. 

It seems, that during the late ferment, produced by the re- 
moval of the powder, and while Mr. Henry was on his march 
toward Williamsburgh, some of the inhabitants of the town, 
to the great offence of the graver citizens, had possessed them- 
selves of a few of the guns which still remained in the mao-a- 
zine. This step gave great displeasure as well as alarm to the 
governor ; and although the mayor and council, as well as all 
the more respectable inhabitants of the town, condemned it in 
terms as strong as his own, and sincerely united in the means 
which were used to recover the arms, yet his lordship contin- 
ued to brood over it in secret, until, with the aid of the minions 
of the palace, he hatched a scheme of low and cruel revenge, 
sufficient of itself to cover him with immortal infamy. 

It was on Monday night, the fifth of June, that this scheme 
discovered itself. " Last Monday night," says Purdie, *' an 
unfortunate accident happened to two persons of this city, who, 
with a number of others, had assembled at the magaz ne, to 
furnish themselves with arms. Upon their entering the door, 
one of the guns, which had a spring to it, and was charged 
eight fingers deep with swan-shot, went ofl^, and lodged two 
balls in one of their shoulders, another entered at his wrist, and 
is not yet extracted : the other person had one of his fingers 
shot off, and the next to it so much shattered as to render it 
useless, by which sad misfortune he is deprived of the means 
of procuring a livelihood by his business. Spring-guns, it 
seems, were placed at other parts of the magazine, of which 
the public were totally ignorant ; and certainly had any person 
lost his life, the perpetrator or perpetrators of this diabolical 
invention might have been justly branded with the opprobri- 
ous title of murderers. O tempora ! O mores !" 

The indignation naturally excited by this piece of deliberate 
and barbarous treachery, which was at once traced to Lord 
Dunmore, was farther aggravated by a discovery that several 
barrels of powder had been buried in the magazine, with the 
purpose, it was reasonably conjectured, of being used as a mine, 
and thus producing still more fatal destruction, when the occa- 
sion should offer. Early on the next morning, Lord Dunmore 
with his family, including Captain Foy, fled from the palace to 
return to it no more, and took shelter on board the Fowey, 
from the vengeance which he knew he so justly deserved. No 
commotion, however, had ensued to justify his retreat. 

The people, indeed, were highly indignant, but they were 
10* 



114 wirt's life of 

silent and quiet. The suggestions of his lordship's conscience 
had alone produced his flight. He left behind him a message. to 
the speaker and house of burgesses, in which he ascribed this 
movement to apprehensions for his personal safety; stated that 
he should fix his residence on board the Fowey; that no inter- 
ruption should be given to the sitting of the assembly ; that he 
should make the access to him easy and safe; and thought it 
would be more agreeable to the house to send to him, from time 
to time, one or more of their members, as occasion might re- 
quire, than to put the whole body to the trouble of moving to 
be near him. 

On receiving this message, the house immediately resolved 
itself into a committee of the whole, and prepared an answer, 
in which they expressed their deep concern at the step which 
he had taken — assuring him that his apprehensions of personal 
danger w^ere entirely unfounded ; regretting that he had not 
expressed them to the house previous to his departure, since, 
from their zeal and attachment to the preservation of order and 
good government, they should have judged it their indispensa- 
ble duty to have endeavoured to remove any cause of disquie- 
tude. They express the anxiety with which they contemplate 
the very disagreeable situation of his most amiable lady and 
her family, and assure him, that they should think themselves 
happy in being able to restore their perfect tranquillity, by re- 
moving all their fears. 

They regret his departure and the manner of it, as tending 
to keep up the great uneasiness which had of late so unhappily 
prevailed in this country ; and declared that they will cheer- 
fully concur in any measure that may be proposed, proper for 
the security of himself and his family ; they remind him how 
impracticable it will be to carry on the business of the session 
with any tolerable degree of propriety, or with that despatch 
which the advanced season of the year required, while his lord- 
ship was so far removed from them, and so inconveniently sit- 
uated ; and conclude with entreating him, that he would be 
pleased to return with his lady and family to the palace, which 
they say, they are persuaded will give the greatest satisfaction, 
and be the most likely means of quieting the minds of the 
people. 

This communication was carried down to him by a deputa- 
tion of two members of the council, and four of the house of 
burgesses ; and in reply to language so respectful, and assur- 
ances so friendly and conciliatory, his lordship returned an an- 
swer in which he charged them with having slighted his offers 
of respect and civility, with giving countenance to the violent 
and disorderly proceeding of the people, and with a usurpation 



PATRICK HENRY. 115 

of the executive power in ordering and appointing guards to 
mount in the city of Williamsburgh, with the view, as was pre' 
tended, to protect the magazine, but which might well be doubt- 
ed, as there then remained nothing therein which required being 
guarded ; he exhorts them to return within the pale of their con- 
stitutional power; to redress the many grievances which existed ; 
to open the courts of justice ; to disarm the independent com- 
panies, and what was not less essential by their own example, 
and every means in iheir power, to abolish the spirit of perse- 
cution which pursued, with menaces and acts of oppression, 
all his majesty's loyal and orderly subjects. 

For the accomplishment of which ends, he invited them to 
adjourn to the town of York, opposite to which the Fowey lay, 
where he promised to meet and remain with them till their 
business should be finished. But with respect to their entreaty 
that he would return to the palace, he represents to them that 
unless they closed in with the conciliatory proposition now 
offered to them by the British parliament, his return to Wil- 
liamsburgh would be as fruitless to the people, as possibly it 
might be dangerous to himself. So that he places the event of 
his returning, on their acceptance of Lord North's offer of con- 
ciliation. 

The house of burgesses now took up that proposition ; and 
having examined it in every light, with the utmost attention, 
they conclude with a firm and dignified rejection of it, and an 
appeal " to the even-handed justice of that Being who doth no 
wrong ; earnestly beseeching him to illuminate the councils, 
and prosper the endeavours, of those to whom America had 
confided her hopes, that, through their wise direction, we may 
again see reunited the blessings of liberty and prosperity, and 
the most permanent harmony with Great Britain."* 

A correspondence on another topic was now opened between 
the council and burgesses, and the governor, Dunmore. 

The former addressed him with a request, that he would or- 
der a large parcel of arms which he had left in the palace to 
be removed to the public magazine, a place of greater safety. 
This he peremptorily refused ; and ordered that those arms, 
belonging to the king, should not be touched without his ex- 
press permission. In their reply, they say, that the arms may 
in some sort be considered as belonging to the king, as the su- 
preme head of the government, and that they were properly 
under his lordship's direction ; yet they humbly conceived, 
that they were originally provided and had been preserved for 
the use of the country in cases of emergency. 

* This vigorous and eloquent production is from ihie same pen which drew 
the Declaration of American Independence. 



116 

The palace, they say, had indeed been hitherto much respect 
ed, but not so much out of regard to the building, as the resi 
dence of his majesty's representative. Had his lordship 
thought fit to remain there, they would have had no apprehen- 
sions of danger ; but considering these arms at present as ex- 
posed to his lordship's servants, and every rude invader, the 
security derived from his lordship's presence could not now be 
relied on. They, therefore, again entreat him to order the re- 
moval of the arms to the magazine. They then proceed to 
state, that they cannot decline representing to him that the im- 
portant business of the assembly had been much impeded by 
his excellency's removal from the palace — that this step had 
deprived them of that free and necessary access to his lord- 
ship, to which they were entitled by the constitution of the 
country — that there were several bills of the last importance 
to the country, now ready to be presented to his excellency for 
his assent. 

They complain of the inconvenience to which they had been 
put in sending their members twelve miles to wait on his ex- 
cellency, on board of one of his majesty's ships of war, to pre- 
sent their addresses — they state that they think it would be 
highly improper, and too great a departure from the constitu- 
tional and accustomed mode of transacting business, to meet 
his excellency at any other place than the capitol, to present 
such bills as were ready for his signature — and, therefore, 
beseech him to return for this purpose. 

To all this he gave a very short answer ; that, as to the arms, 
he had already declared his intention, and conceived they were 
meddling with a subject which did not belong to them ; he de- 
sired to know whom they designed by the term rude invader ; 
that the disorders in Williamsburgh and other parts of the 
country, had driven him from the palace ; and that, if any incon- 
venience had arisen to the assembly on that account, he was 
not chargeable with it; that they had not been deprived of any 
necessary or free access to him ; that the constitution undoubt- 
edly vested him with the power of calling the assembly to any 
place in the colony, which exigency might require ; that not 
having been made acquainted with the whole proceedings of 
the assembly, he knew of no bills of importance, which, if he 
were inclined to risk his person again among the people, the 
assembly had to present to him, nor whether they were such 
as he could assent to. 

In the course of their correspondence he required the house 
to attend him on board the Fowey, for the purpose of obtain- 
ing his signature to the bills ; and some of the members to pre- 
vent an actual dissolution of the government, and to give effect 



PATRICK HENRY. lit 

to the many necessary bills which they had passed, proposed 
to yield to this extraordinary requisition. The project, how- 
ever, was exploded by a member's rising in his place, and re- 
lating the fable of the sick lion and the fox. 

The governor having thus virtually abdicated his office, the 
government was in- effect dissolved. The house hereupon 
resolved, " That his Lordship's message, requiring the house 
to attend him on board one of his majesty's ships-of-war, is a 
high breach of the rights and privileges of this house." — " That 
the unreasonable delays thrown into the proceedings of this 
house by the governor, and his evasive answers to the sin- 
cere and decent addresses of the representatives of the people, 
give us great reason to fear, that a dangerous attack may be 
meditated against the unhappy people of this colony." — " It 
is, therefore, our opinion, they say, that they prepare for the 
preservation of their property, and their inestimable rights and 
liberties with the greatest care and attention." 

" That we do and will bear faith and true allegiance to our 
most gracious sovereign, George III., our only lawful and 
rightful king : that we will, at all times, to the utmost of our 
power, and at the risk of our lives and properties, maintain and 
defend his government in this colony, as founded on the estab- 
lished laws and principles of the constitution : that it is our 
most earnest desire to preserve and strengthen those bonds of 
amity, with all our fellow-subjects in Great Britain, which are 
so very essential to the prosperity and happiness of both coun- 
tries." Having adopted these resolutions without a dissenting 
voice, they adjourned themselves to the twelfth of October fol- 
lowing ; and the delegates were summoned to meet in conven- 
tion at the town of Richmond, on the seventeenth of July.* 

Immediately on the adjournment of the house of burgesses, 
a very full meeting of the citizens of Williamsburgh convened, 
on the call of Peyton Randolph, at the court-house in that city, 
" to consider of the expediency of stationing a number of men 
there for the public safety ; as well to assist the citizens in their 
nightly watches, as to guard against any surprise from our ene- 
mies ; whereupon it was unanimously agreed (until the general 
convention should meet) to invite down from a number of 
counties, to the amount of two hundred and fifty men. Mean- 
while, until they arrived, the neighbouring counties, they say, 
were kind enough to lend them their assistance. 

* On this occasion, Richard H. Lee, standing with two of the burgesses in 
the porch of the capitol, inscribed with his pencil on a pillar of the capitol, 
these prophetic lines, from Shakspeare : — 

" Wlien shall we three meet again 1 
In thunder, lightning, and in rain ; 
When the hurly- burly 's done, 
When the battle's lost and icon.*' 



Its wjrt's life of 

On the twenty-ninth of June, the Fowey ship, and Magdalen 
schooner, sailed from York ; on board the latter went Lady 
Dunmore, and the rest of the governor's family, bound for Eng- 
land ; and the colony was for a short time relieved by the re- 
' port that the Fowey carried Lord Dunmore and Captain Foy 
on a visit to General Gage, at Boston. This report, however, 
was unfounded. The Fowey merely escorted the Magdalen to 
the Capes, and then returned again to her moorings, before 
York. The Otter sloop-of-war, commanded by Captain Squire, 
thereupon fell down to the mouth of York river, with the inten- 
tion of cruising along the coast, and seizing all provision ves- 
sels ; and soon became distinguished at least for the malignity 
of her attempts. The Fowey was relieved by the ship Mercu- 
ry, of twenty-four guns, John Macartney, commander, and de- 
parted for Boston, and carrying with her the now obnoxious 
Captain Foy. The governor's domestics left the palace, and 
removed to his farm at Montibello, about six miles below Wil- 
liamsburgh ; and the governor himself fixed his station at the 
town of Portsmouth. In this posture of things, on Monday, 
the twenty-fourth of July, seventeen hundred and seventy-five, 
the colonial convention met at the city of Richmond. 

The proceedings of this convention were marked by a char- 
acter of great decision and vigour. One of their first measures 
was an ordinance for raising and imbodying a sufllicient force 
for the defence and protection of the colony. By this ordi- 
nance it was provided, that two regiments of regulars, to con- 
sist of one thousand and twenty privates, rank and file, should 
be forthwith raised and taken into the pay of the colony ; and 
a competent regular force was also provided for the protection 
of the western frontier. The whole colony was divided into 
sixteen military districts ; with a provision, that a regiment of 
six hundred and eighty men, rank and file, should be raised on 
the eastern shore district, and a battalion of five hundred in each 
of the others ; to be forthwith armed, trained, furnished with 
all military accoutrements, and ready to march at a minute's 
warning. 

A committee, called the committee of safety, was also organ- 
ized, with functions and powers analogous to those of the ex- 
ecutive department, and apparently designed to supply the 
vacancy occasioned by the governor's abdication of that branch 
of the government. 

The convention now proceeded to the appointment of officers 
to command the regular forces. The lofty stand which Mr. 
Henry had taken in the American cause, his increasing popu- 
larity, and the prompt and energetic movement which he had 
made in the aflfair of the gunpowder, brought him strongly be* 



PATRICK HENRY. |119 

fore the view of the house ; and he was elected the colonel of the 

first regiment, and the commander of all the forces raised^ and 
to he raised, for the defence of the colony. Mr. William Wood- 
ford, who is said to have distinguished himself in the French 
and Indian war, was appointed to the command of the second 
regiment. 

The place of rendezvous for the troops was the city of Wil- 
liamsburgh. Mr. Henry was at his post on the twentieth of 
September, examining the grounds adjacent to the city, for the 
purpose of selecting an encampment; and the place chosen 
was at the back of William and Mary college. The troops 
were recruited and poured in with wonderful rapidity. The 
papers of the day teem with the annunciation of company after 
company, both regulars and minute-men, with the highest en- 
comiums on the appearance and spirit of the troops ; and had 
the purpose been offensive war, Colonel Henry was soon in a 
situation to have annihilated any force that Lord Dunmore 
could at that time have arrayed against him. 

But there was, in truth, something extremely singular and 
embarrassing in the situation of the parties in regard to each 
other. It was not war, nor was it peace. The very ordinance 
by which these troops were raised, was filled with professions 
of allegiance and fidelity to George III. — professions, whose 
sincerity there is the less reason to doubt, because they are 
confined to the exercise of his constitutional powers, and stand 
connected with an expression of their firm determination to 
resist any attempt on the liberties of the country. The only 
intelligible purpose, therefore, for which these troops were 
raised, was a preparation for defence ; and for defence against 
an attempt to enforce the parliamentary taxes upon this colony. 
With respect to Lord Dunmore, he was indeed considered as 
having abandoned the duties of his office : yet still he was re- 
garded as the governor of Virginia ; and there seems to have 
been no disposition to offer violence to his person. 

Dunmore, on his part, considered the colony as in a state of 
open and general rebellion ; not merely designing to resist an 
attempt to enforce upon them an obnoxious tax, but to subvert 
the regal government wholly and entirely ; and had his power 
been equal to his wishes, there is no reason to doubt that he 
would have disarmed the colony, and hung up without cere- 
mony, the leaders of this traitorous revolt, as he affected to 
consider it. His impotence, however, and the aversion of the 
colonists to act otherwise than defensively, produced a suspense 
full of the most painful anxiety. 

In the- meantime, Captain Squire, commander of his majes- 
ty's sloop, the Otter, had been labouring throughout the sur^- 



130 wirt's life of 

mer with some success, to change the defensive attitude of the 
colony. He was engaged in cruising continually in James and 
York rivers, plundering the defenceless shores, and carrying 
off the slaves, wherever seduction or force could place them in 
his power. These piratical excursions had wrought up the 
citizens who were not in arms to a very high pitch of resent- 
ment ; and an accident soon gave them an opportunity of par- 
tial reprisal, which they did not fail to seize. 

On the second of September, the captain, sailing in a tender, 
on a marauding expedition from James to York river, was en- 
countered by a violent tempest, and his tender was driven on 
shore upon Back river, near Hampton. It was night, and the 
storm still raging : — the captain and his men, distrusting (un- 
justly, as it would seem from the papers) the hospitality of the 
inhabitants, made their escape through the woods ; the vessel 
was on the next day discovered and burnt by the people of the 
neighbourhood. In consequence of this act, the captain ad- 
dressed the following letter to the committee of the town of 
Hampton : — 

" Otter sloop, Norfolk river, Sept, 10, 1775. 

" Gentlemen — Whereas, a sloop-tender, manned and arm- 
ed in his majesty's service, was, on Saturday the second in- 
stant, in a violent gale of wind, cast on shore in Back river. 
Elizabeth county, having on board the undermentioned king's 
stores, which the inhabitants of Hampton thought proper to 
seize : I am therefore to desire, that the king's sloop, with all 
the stores belonging to her, be immediately returned ; or the 
people of Hampton, who committed the outrage, must be an- 
swerable for the consequences. 

" I am, gentlemen, your humble servant, 

"Matthew Squire.'* 

This letter, with a catalogue of the stores having been com- 
municated to the committee of Williamsburgh, and by them 
having been laid before the commanding officer of the volun- 
teers of that place. Major James Innes, at the head of a hun- 
dred men, who courted the enterprise, flew to Hampton to re- 
pel the threatened invasion. Squire, however, satisfied him- 
self for the present, by falling down to Hampton road, where 
he seized the passage-boats, with the negroes in them, by way 
of reprisal, as he alleged, for the stores, &c., taken out of his 
tender when driven ashore in the late storm ; " which boats 
and negroes," adds Purdie's paper of the day, " it is likely he 
intends taking into the Jcing^s service, to send out a pirating 
for hogs, fowls, &LC. A very pretty occupation for th§ captain 
of one of his majesty's ships-of-war." 

Thg next paper announces the movements of Squire by a 



PATRICK HENRY. Ij^l* 

paragraph, which I extract verbatim, as showing in an amu- 
sing light, the spirit of the times, and as Camden says, " the 
plain and jolly mirth of our ancestors," even in the midst of 
misfortunes: — "We hear that the renowned Captain Squire, of 
his majesty's sloop Otter, is gone up the bay for Baltimore in 
Maryland ; on his old trade, it is to be presumed, of negro- 
catching, pillaging the farms and plantations of their stock and 
poultry, and other illustrious actions, highly becoming a 
Squire in the king's navy. Some say, his errand was to watch 
for a quantity of gunpov/der intended for this colony ; but that 
valuable is now safely landed where he dare not come to smell 
it." The same paper contains the following answer from the 
committee of Hampton to Squire's letter : — 
"To Matthew Squire, Esq., commander of his majesty's sloop 
Otter, lying in Hampton roads. 

'' Hamyton, September 16, 1775. 

" Sir — Yours of the tenth instant, directed to the committee 
of the town of Hampton, reciting, that a sloop-tender on his 
majesty's service was, on the second instant, cast on shore near 
this place, having on board some of the king's stores, which 
you say were seized by the inhabitants, and demanding an im- 
mediate return of the same, or that the people of Hampton 
must answer the consequences of such outrage, was this day 
laid before them, who knowing the above recital to be injuri- 
ous and u^rue think proper here to mention the facts relative 
to this matter. The sloop we apprehend, was not in his ma- 
jesty's service, as we are well assured that you were on a pilla- 
ging or pleasuring party ; and although it gives us pain to use 
indelicate expressions, yet the treatment received from you 
calls for a state of facts, in the simple language of truth, how- 
ever harsh it may sound. 

" To your own heart we appeal for the candour with which 
we have stated them — to that heart which drove you into the 
woods in the most tempestuous weather, in one of the darkest 
nights, to avoid the much-injlired and innocent inhabitants of this 
county, who had never threatened or ill-used you — and who 
would at that time have received you, we are assured, with 
humanity and civility, had you made yourself and situation 
known to them. 

" Neither the vessel nor stores were seized by the inhabit- 
ants of Hampton ; the gunner, one Mr. Gray — and the pilot, 
one Mr. Ruth — who were 'employed by you on this party, are 
men, we hope, who will still assert the truth. From them, di- 
vers of our members were informed that the vessel and stores 
together with a good seine, (which you, without cause, so has- 
tily desjerted,) were given up as irrecoverably lost, by the ofTi- 

11 



133 WIRT's lite Ox 

cers, and some of the proprietors, to one Finn, near whose 
house you were driven on shore, as a reward for his entertain- 
ing you, &c., with respect and decency. 

" The threats of a person whose conduct hath evinced that 
he was not only capable, but desirous of doing us, in our then 
defenceless state, the greatest injustice, we confess, were some- 
what alarming ; but with the greatest pleasure we can inform 
you, our apprehensions are now removed. 

" Although we know that we cannot legally be called to ac- 
count for that which you are pleased to style an outrage, and 
notwithstanding we have hitherto, by you been treated with 
iniquity, we will, as far as in our power lies, do you right upon 
just and equitable terms. 

" First. We, on behalf of the community, require from you the 
restitution of a certain Joseph Harris, the property of a gentle- 
man of our town, and all other our slaves whom you may have 
on board ; which said Harris, as well as other slaves, hath been 
long harboured, and often employed, with your knowledge, (as 
appeared to us by the confession of Ruth and others, and is 
well known to all your men,) in pillaging us under cover of 
night, of our sheep and other live stock. 

" Secondly. We require that you will send on shore all 
boats, with their hands, and every other thing you have detain- 
ed on this occasion. 

"And lastly. That you shall not, by your owi^ arbitrary 
authority, undertake to insult, molest, interrupt, or detain, the 
persons or property of any one passing to and from this town, 
as you have frequently done for some time past. 

"Upon complying with those requisitions, we will endeav- 
our to procure every article left on our shore, and shall be 
ready to deliver them to your pilot and gunner, of whose 
good behaviour we have had some proofs. 

"We are, &c., 
" The Committee of Elizabeth City county, 
and town of Hampton.""^ 
In the meantime, Squire's threat against Hampton was not 
an empty one, as is proven by the following account of the at- 
tempt to execute it : the article is extracted from a supplement 
to Purdie's paper of October twenty-seventh, seventeen hun- 
dred and seventy-five : — 

" After Lord Dunmore, with his troops and the navy, had 
been for several weeks seizing the persons and property of his 
majesty's peaceable subjects in this colony — on Wednesday 
night last, a party from an armed tender landed near Hampton, 
and took away a valuable negro slave and a sail from the own- 
er. Next morning there appeared off the mouth of Hampton 



PATRICK HENRY. 12^ 

river, a large armed schooner, a sloop, and three tenders, 
with soldiers on board, and a message was received at Hamp- 
ton from Captain Squire, on board the schooner, that he would 
that day land and burn the town ; on which a company of reg- 
ulars, and a company of minute-men,* who had been placed 
there in consequence of former threats denounced against that 
place, made the best disposition to prevent their landing, aided 
by a body of militia who were suddenly called together on the 
occasion. 

" The enemy accordingly attempted to land, but were retarded 
by some boats sunk across the channel for that purpose. Upon 
this they fired several small cannon at the provincials without 
any effect, who in return discharged their small arms so effect- 
ually, as to make the enemy move off, with the loss of several 
aien, as it is believed. But they had, in the meantime, burnt 
down a house belonging to Mr. Cooper, on the river. On in- 
telligence of this reaching Williamsburgh, about nine o'clock 
at night, a company of riflemen was despatched to the aid of 
Hampton, and the colonel of the second regiment sent to take 
the command of the whole ; who with the company, arrived 
about eight o'clock next morning. 

" The enemy had in the night cut through the boats sunk, 
find made a passage for their vessels, which were drawn close 
op to the town, and began to fire upon it soon after the arrival 
of the party from Williamsburgh ; but as soon as our men 
were so disposed as to give them a iQ\Y shot, they went off so 
hastily that our people took a small tender, with five white 
men, a woman, and two slaves, six swivels, seven muskets, 
some small arms, a sword, pistols, and other things,^ and several 
papers belonging to Lieutenant Wright, who made his escape 
by jumping overboard and swimming away with Mr. King's 
man, who are on shore^ and a pursuit it is hoped may over- 
take them. 

" There were two of the men in the vessel mortally wound- 
ed ; one is since dead, and the other near his end. Besides 
which, we are informed, nine were seen to be thrown over- 
board from one of the vessels. We have not a man even 
wounded. The vessels went over to Norfolk, and we are in- 
formed the whole force from thence is intended to visit Hamp- 
ton this day. If they should, we hope our brave troops are 
prepared for them ; as we can with pleasure assure the public, 

* " Captain George Nicholas commandod the regulars, and Captain Lyne the 
minute- men ; Captain Nicholas, therefore, as being in the regular service, had 
the command of the whole in the first skirmish. This gentleman was the eld- 
est son of Colonel Robert C. Nicholas ; and on the return of peace became 
highly distinguished both as a politician and a lawyer. 



134 whit's life of 

• 
that every part of them belmved with spirit and bravery, and 
are wishing for another skirmish." 

The next paper contains the following card to Captain 
Squire, which is inserted merely as another specimen of the 
character of the times : — 

" Williamshurgh, November 3d, 

" The riflemen and soldiers of Hampton desire their compli- 
ments to Captain Squire and his squadron, and wish to know 
how they approve the reception they met last Friday. Should 
he incline to renew his visit, they will be glad to see him ; oth- 
erwise, in point of complaisance, they will be under the neces- 
sity of returning the visit. If he cannot find the ear that was 
cut off, they hope he will wear a 2oig- to hide the mark ; for 
perhaps it may not be necessary that all should know chance 
had eifected that which the laws ought to have done." 

In the meantime, Lord Dunmore, with a motley band of 
tories, negroes, and recruits from St. Augustine's, was " cutting 
such fantastic capers" in the country round about Norfolk, as 
made it necessary to crush him or drive him from the state. 
With this view, the committee of safety (who, by their consti- 
tution, were authorized to direct all military movements) de- 
tached Colonel Woodford, at the head of about eight hundred 
men to cross James river at Sandy Point, and go in pursuit of 
his' lordship. Colonel Henry himself had been anxious for 
this service, and is said to have solicited it in vain. But the 
committee of safety* seem to have distrusted too much his 
want of military experience, to confide to him so important 
an enterprise. 

The disgust which Mr. Henry had conceived at the palpable 
reflection on his military capacity was increased by Colonel 
Woodford's refusal to acknowledge his superiority in command. 
This gentleman, after his departure from Williamshurgh, on 
the expedition against Dunmore, considered himself as no longer 
under Mr. Henry's authority ; and consequently addressed all 

* The committee of safety was composed of the following gentlemen : — Ed- 
mund Pendleton, George Mason, Plon. John Page, Richard Bland, Thomas 
Ludwell Lee. Paul Carriiigton, Dudley Digges,William Cabell, Carter Brax- 
ton, James Mercer, and John Tabb, esquires. The clause of the ordinance 
of convention which authorized this committee to direct all military move- 
ments, is the following : — 

"And whereas it may be necessary for the public security, that the forces to 
be raised by virtue of this ordinance should, as occasion may require, be 
marched to different parts of the colon}^, and that the officers should be sub- 
ject to a proper control. Be it ordained by the authority aforesa.id, That the offi- 
cers and soldiers under such command shall in all things, not otherwise particu- 
larly provided for by this ordinance, and the articles established for their regu- 
lation, be under the control, and subject to the order of the general committco 
of safety." 



PATRICK HENRY. 125 

his communications to the convention when in session, and 
when not so, to the committee of safety. On the sixth Decem- 
ber, seventeen hundred and seventy-five, Mr. Henry sent an 
express to Colonel Woodford, with the following letter : — 

" On Virginia service. 

*' To William Woodford, Esq., colonel of the second regiment 

of the Virginia forces. 

'^Headquarters, Bee. 6, 1775. 

" Sir — Not hearing of any despatch from you for a long time, 
I can no longer forbear sending to know your situation, and 
what has occurred. Every one as well as myself, is vastly 
anxious to hear how all stands with you. In case you think 
anything could be done to aid and forward the enterprise you 
have in hand, please to write it. But I wish to know your sit- 
uation, particularly with that of the enemy, that the whole may 
be laid before the convention now here. The number and de- 
signs of the enemy, as you have collected it, might open some 
prospects to us, that might enable us to form some diversion 
in your favour. The bearer has orders to lose no time, and 
return with all possible haste. I am, sir, your most humble 
servant, " P. Henry, jun. 

" P. S. Captain Alexander's company is not yet come. 
"Col. Woodford." 

To this letter, on the next day, he received the following 
answer from Colonel Woodford : — 

*' Great Bridge, 1th Dec., 1775. 

" Sir — I have received yours per express ; in answer to 
which must inform you, that, understanding you were out of 
town, I have not written you before last Monday, by the return 
of the honourable the convention's express, when I referred you 
to my letter to them for every particular respecting mine and 
the enemy's situation. I wrote them again yesterday and this 
morning, which no doubt they will communicate to you, as 
commanding officer of the troops at Williamsburgh. When 
joined, I shall always esteem myself immediately under your 
command, and will obey accordingly ; but when sent to com- 
mand a separate and distinct body of troops, under the imme- 
diate instructions of the committee of safety — whenever that 
body or the honourable convention is sitting, I look upon it as 
my indispensable duty to address my intelligence to them, as 
the supreme power in this colony. 

"If I judge wrong, I hope that honourable body will set me 
right. I would wish to keep up the greatest harmony between 
us, for the good of the cause we are engaged in ; but cannot 
bear to be supposed to have neglected my duty, when I have 

11* 



126 wirt's life of 

• 

done eveiTtliing 1 conceived to be so. The enemy are strong- 
ly fortified on the other side the bridge, and a great number of 
negroes and tories with them ; my prisoners disagree as to the 
numbers. We are situate here in mud and mire, exposed to 
every hardship that can be conceived, but the want of provis- 
ions, of which our stock is but small, the men suffering for 
shoes; and if ever soldiers deserved a second blanket in any 
service, they do in this ; our stock of ammunition much re- 
duced, no bullet-moulds that were good for anything sent to 
run up our lead, till those sent the other day by Mr. Page, 
If these necessaries and better arms had been furnished in time 
for this detachment, they might haye prevented much trouble 
and great expense to this colony. 

" Most of those arms I received the other day from Williams- 
burgh are rather to be considered as lumber, than lit to be put 
in men's hands, in the face of an enemy : with much repair, 
some of them will do ; with those, and what I have taken from 
the enemy, hope to be better armed in a few days. I have 
written to the convention, that it was my opinion, the greatest 
part of the first regiment ought immediately to march to the 
scene of action with some cannon, and a supply of ammunition, 
and every other necessary for war that the colony can muster, 
that a stop may be put to the enemy's progress. 

" As to the Carolina troops and cannon, they are by no 
means what I was made to expect : sixty of them are here, and 
one hundred will be here to-morrow ; more, it is said, will fol- 
low in a few days, under Colonel Howe ; badly armed, cannon 
not mounted, no furniture to them. How long these people 
will choose to stay, it is impossible for me to say ; ninety-nine 
in one hundred of these lower people rank tories. From all 
these informations, if you can make a diversion in my favour, 
it will be of service to the colony, and very acceptable to my- 
self and soldiers ; whom, if possible, I will endeavour to keep 
easy under their hard duty, but begin to doubt whether it will 
be the case long." 

In two days after the receipt of this letter, came the news 
of the victory of the Great Bridge, by which Colonel Wood- 
ford at once threw into the shade the military pretensions of 
all the other state officers ; a circumstance not very well cal- 
culated to gild the pill of contumacy, which he had just present- 
ed to the commander-in-chief. The committee of safety had 
now a delicate part to act between these two officers ; they 
were extremely anxious to avoid the decision of the question 
which had arisen betv/een them, seeing very distinctly thai 
their decision could not but disappoint very painfully that gen- 
tleman who was their favourite officer, 



PATRICK HENRY. 127 

They seem to have been apprehensive that Colonel Wood- 
ford would be led, by that decision, to resign in disgust ; and 
were justly alarmed at the idea of losing the services of so 
valuable an officer, especially after the distinction which he 
had recently gained at the Great Bridge. Mr. Henry, howev- 
er, insisted that the committee or convention should determine 
the question, as being the only way to settle the construction 
of his commission. It was accordingly taken up, and decided 
by the following order of the committee : — 

" In Committee — December, mdcclxxv 

"Resolved, unanimously. That Colonel Woodford, although 
acting upon a separate and detached command, ought to cor- 
respond with Colonel Henry, and make returns to him at prop- 
er times of the state and condition of the forces under his com- 
mand ; and also that he is subject to his orders, when the con- 
vention, or the committee of safety, is not sitting, but that while 
either of those bodies are sitting, he is to receive his orders 
from one of them." 

The address which was thought ne-cessary in communicating 
this resolution to Colonel Woodford, is a proof of the very 
high estimate in which he was held by the committee ; and the 
same evidence furnishes very decisive proof that Colonel Hen- 
ry had not owed his military appointment to the suffrage ot 
those members of the committee who maintained the corres- 
pondence. Thus, on the thirteenth of December, seventeen 
hundred and seventy -five, a member of the convention address- 
ed a letter to Colonel Woodford, which seems to have been a 
preparative for the resolution of the committee, and is certain- 
ly suited, with great dexterity, to that object ; the writer, after 
some introductory observations, says : — " Whether you are 
obliged to make your returns to Colonel H — y, and to send 
your despatches through him to the convention and committee 
of safety, and also from those bodies through him to you, must 
depend upon the ordinance and the commission he bears. 

" You will observe his commission is strongly worded, be- 
yond what I believe was the intention of the person who drew 
it* — but the ordinance, I think, clearly gives the convention, 

* The committee appointed to draw up and report the forms of commis- 
sions, for the officers of the troops to be raised by order of the convention of 
the summer of 1775, were, Mr. Banister, Mr. Lawson, Mr. Walkins, and Mr. 
Holt ; and on the 26th of August, 1775, Mr. Banister from this committee re- 
ported the following : — 
" Form of a commission for the colonel of the first regiment, and commander 

of the regular forces. 
"The committee of safety for the colony of Virginia to Patrick Henry, Esq. 

" Whereas by a resolution of the delegates of this colony, in convention as- 
sembled, it was determhied that you, the said Patrick Henry, Esq., should be 



428 wirt's life of 

and committee of safety acting under their authority, the abso 
lute direction of the troops. The dispute between you must 
be occasioned, I suppose, (for I have not seen your letter to 
the colonel,) by disregard of him as a commander, after the 
adjournment of the committee of safety, and before the meet- 
ing of the convention ; at which time, I am apt to think, though 
I am not military man enough to determine, your correspond- 
ence should have been with him as commanding officer. 

" I have talked with Colonel Henry about this matter ; he 
thinks he has been ill treated, and insists the officers under his 
command shall submit to his orders. I recommended it to 
him to treat the business with caution and temper ; as a differ- 
ence at this critical moment between our troops would be at- 
tended with the most fatal consequences ; and took the liberty 
to assure him you would, I was certain, submit to whatever 
was thought just and reasonable. He has laid the letter before 
the committee of safety, whose sentiments upon the subject I 
expect you must have received before this. I hope it will not 
come before the convention, but from what Colonel Henry 
said, he intimated it must, as it could be no otherwise deter- 
mined. 

" My sentiments upon that delicate point, I partly communi- 
cated upon the expected junction of the Carolina troops with 

colonel of the first regiment of regulars, and commander-in-chief of all the 
forces to be raised for the protection and defence of this colony ; and by an 
ordinance of the same convention it is provided, that the committee of safety 
should issue all military commissions : Now, in pursuance of the said power to 
us granted, and in conformity to the appointment of the convention, we, the 
said committee of safety, do constitute and commission you, the said Patrick 
Henry, Esq., colonel of the first regiment of regulars, and commander-in-chief 
of all such other forces as may, by order of the conventio7i, or committee of safe- 
ty, be directed to act in conjunction with them; and with the said forces, or any 
of them, you are hereby empowered to resist and repel all hostile invasions, and 
quell and suppress any insurrections which may be made or attempted 
against the peace and safety of this his majesty's colony and dominion. 

"And we do require you to exert your utmost efforts for the promotion of dis- 
cipline and order among the officers and soldiers under your command, agreeable 
to such ordinances, rules, and articles, which are now or hereafter may be, institu- 
ted for the government and regulation of the army ; and that you pay due obe- 
dience to all orders and instructions, which, from time to time, you may receive 
from the convention or committee of safety ; to hold, exercise, and enjoy the 
said office of colonel and commander-in-chief of the forces, and to perform 
and execute the power and authority aforesaid, and all other things which are 
truly and of right incidental to your said office, during the pleasure of the 
convention, and no longer. And we do hereby require and command all officers 
. end soldiers, and every person whatsoever, in any way concerned, to be obedient 
and assisting to you in all things, touching the due execution of this commis- 
sion, according to the purport or intent thereof. 

'< Given under our hands at this day of Anno 

Dora. 177 ." 



PATRICK HENRY. 129 

ours which I presume you have received. By your letter yes- 
terday to the president, I find you agree with me. I very cor- 
dially congratulate you on the success at the Bridge and the 
reduction of the fort, which will give our troops the benefit of 
better and more wholesome ground. Your letter came to the 
convention just time enough to read it before we broke up, as 
it was nearly dark ; it was however proposed and agreed, that 
the president should transmit you the approbation of your con- 
duct in treating with kindness and humanity the unfortunate 
prisoners ; and that your readiness to avoid dispute about rank 
with Colonel Howe, they consider as a further mark of your 
attachment to the service of your country. 

" I have had it in contemplation paying you a visit, but have 
not been able to leave the convention, as many of our members 
are absent and seem to be in continual rotation, some going, 
others returning. We shall raise many more battalions, and,, 
as soon as practicable, arm some vessels. A commander or gen- 
eral, I suppose, will be sent us by the congress, as it is expect- 
ed our troops will be upon continental pay. I pray God to 
protect you, and prosper all your endeavours." 

But the letter from the chairman of the committee, which 
enclosed the resolution is a masterpiece of address, so far as 
relates to the feelings of Colonel Woodford ; though certainly 
not well judged to promote the permanent harmony of those 
officers, by inspiring sentiments of respect and subordination 
for the superior. The letter bears date on the twenty-fourth 
of December, seventeen hundred and seventy-five ; it is writ- 
ten in a strain of the most frank and conciliatory friendship — 
/ull of deserved eulogy on Colonel Woodford's conduct — and 
'very far from complimentary to the colonel of the first regiment. 

In relation to this gentleman, (after having m.entioned the 
resolution of raising other regiments,) he says: "The field- 
officers to each regiment will be named here, and recommend- 
ed to congress ; in case our army is taken into continental pay, 
they will send commissions. A general officer will be chosen 
there, I doubt not, and sent us ; with that matter, I hope we 
shall not intermeddle, lest it should be thought propriety re- 
quires our calling- or rather recommending our present first 
officer to that station. 

" Believe me, sir, the unlucky step of calling that gentleman 
from our councils, where he was useful, into the field, in an 
important station, the duties of which he must, in the nature oi 
things, be an entire stranger to, has given me many an anxious 
and uneasy moment. In consequence of this mistaken step, 
which cannot now be retracted or remedied, for he has done 
nothing worthy of degradation, and must keep his rank, we 
I 



130 wirt's life of 

must be deprived of the service of some able officers, whose 
honour and former ranks will not suffer them to act under him 
in this juncture, when we so much need their services ; how- 
ever, 1 am told, that Mercer, Buckner, Dangerfield, and Wee- 
den, will serve, and are all thought of. I am also told, that 
Mr. Thurston and Mr. Millikin are candidates for regiments : 
the latter, I believe, will raise, and have a German one. In 
the course of these reflections, my great concern is on your 
account. 

" The pleasure I have enjoyed in finding your army conduct- 
ed with wisdom and success, and your conduct meet with the 
general approbation of the convention and country, makes me 
more uneasy at a thought that the country should be deprived 
of your services, or you made uneasy in it, by any untoward 
circumstances. I had seen your letter to our friend Mr. Jones, 
(now a member of the committee of safety,) and besides thai. 
Colonel Henry has laid before the committee your letter to 
him, and desired our opinion whether he was to command you 
or not. 

" We never determined this till Friday evening ; a copy of 
the resolution I enclose you. If this will not be agreeable, and 
prevent future disputes, I hope some happy medium will be 
suggested to effect the purpose, and make you easy ; for the 
colony cannot part with you, while troops are necessary to be 
continued." 

Mr. Henry had too much sagacity not to perceive the light 
in which he was viewed by the committee of safety, and too 
much sensibility not to be wounded by the discovery. His 
situation was indeed, at this time, most painfully embarrassing. 
The rank which he had held was full of the promise of honour 
and distinction; he was the first officer of the Virginia forces ; 
the celebrity which he had already attained among his country- 
men, not only by his political resistance to the measures of the 
British parliament, but by the bold and daring military enter- 
prise which he had headed the preceding year, in the* affair of 
the gunpowder, led his countrymen to expect, that the appoint- 
ment which he now held would not be a barren one, but that 
he would mark it with the characters of his extraordinary ge- 
nius, and become as distinguished in the field as he had been in 
the senate. 

He knew that these expectations were entertained, and had 
every disposition to realize them; but his wishes and his hopes 
were perpetually overruled by the committee of safety, who 
commanded over him, and who gratuitously distrusting his ca- 
pacity for war, would give him no opportunity of making trial 
of it. Yet Mr. Henry, untried, has been most unjustly slighted 



PATRICK HENRY. * 131 

* 

as a soldier, and spoken of as a mere military cipher ! If I 
have not been misinformed, some of those who composed this 
very committee did, in aftertimes, frequently allude to this pe- 
riod of his life, to prove the practical inutility of his character, 
and have applied to him the saying, which Wilkes applied to 
Lord Chatham, that " all his power and efficacy was seated in 
his tongue."* 

What figure he might have made in war, had the opportu- 
nity been allowed him, can now be only matter of speculation. 
His personal bravery, so far as I have heard, has never been 
called in question ; or if it has, it has been without evidence : 
and neither his ardour in the public cause, nor his strong natu- 
ral sense, can with any colour of justice be disputed. If we 
superadd to these qualities that presence of mind, that prompti- 
tude, boldness, and novelty of view — that dexterous address, 
and fertility of expedient, for which he was remarkable — I can 
see no reason to doubt, that he would have justified the highest 
expectations of his admirers, had he been permitted to com- 
mand the expedition which he courted. 

As to his want of experience, the alleged ground for keep- 
ing him so ignominiously confined to headquarters, he pos- 
sessed pretty nearly as much experience as Colonel Washing- 
ton had when he covered the retreat of Braddock's routed 
forces ; as much, too, as those young generals of ours who 
have recently covered themselves with so much glory on our 
northern frontier : nor would it seem to comport with that re- 
spect which the committee owed to the convention, from whom 
both Colonel Henry and themselves had received their respect- 
ive appointments, to arrogate the power of reversing the decree 
of the convention, and practically degrading the officer of their 
first choice. It is certain that the committee were severely 
spoken of at the day, and that the people, as well as the 
soldiery, did not hesitate openly to impute their conduct toward 
Mr. Henry to personal envy. 

Other humiliations yet awaited him. Shortly after the affair 
of the Great Bridge, Colonel Howe, of North Carolina, at the 
head of five or six hundred men of that state, joined Colonel 
Woodford ; and taking the command of the whole, with the 
consent of the latter gentleman, who yielded to the seniority of 
his commission, marched with their united forces into Norfolk, 
which had been evacuated by the British. From this post 
Colonel Howe continually addressed his communications to the 
committee of safety, or to the convention ; and Colonel Henry, 

♦ — homines inertissimi, quorum omnis vis, vtrtusque in lingua sita est. 

Sallust Oratio sec. De Rep. Orel. 



132 ' wirt's life of 

after havinof seen his lawful rio;hts and honours transferred in 
the first instance, to an inferior officer of his own, had now 
the mortification of seeing himself completely superseded, and 
almost annihilated, by an officer from another state of only 
equal rank. 

But even this was not all : six additional regiments had been 
raised by the convention, and congress had been solicited to 
take the Virginia troops on continental establishment. They 
resolved to take the six new regiments, passing by the two first; 
a discrimination which conveys so palpable a reflection on the 
two first regiments, that it is difficult to account for it, except 
by the secret influence of that unfriendly star, which had hith- 
erto controlled and obscured Mr. Henry's military destinies. 
The measure Avas so exactly adjusted to the wish expressed by 
Colonel Woodford's correspondent, that congress would not 
devolve the chief command of the Virginia forces on Colonel 
Henry, that it is difficult to avoid the suspicion that the sug- 
gestion came from the same quarter. 

The convention, however, now interfered in behalf of their 
fiivourite ; and remonstrated against this degradation of the 
officers of their first choice ; earnestly recommending it to 
congress, if they adhered to their resolution of taking into con- 
tinental pay no more than six regiments, to suffer the two first 
to stand first in the arrangement. This course was accordingly 
adopted; but, at the same time, commissions of brigadier- 
general were forwarded by congress to Colonel Howe, and 
Colonel Andrew Lewis. 

The reader, if he knows anything of the scrupulous and 
even fastidious delicacy with which military officers watch the 
most distant reflection upon their competency, will not be sur- 
prised that Mr. Henry refused the continental commission of 
colonel,* which was now offered to him and immediately re- 

* The following is an exact, copy of the commission sent from the general 
congress to the committee of safet}^ appointing Colonel Henry to the com- 
mand of the first regiment, or battalion, in this colony, taken upon the conti- 
nental establishment, agreeable to the requisition of the last convention : — 

" In CoNaREss. 

" The delegates of the United Colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts 
bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the 
counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware, Maryland, Virgin- 
ia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to Patrick Henry, Esq. : — 
*' We, reposing especial trust and confidence in your patriotism, valour, 
conduct, and fidelity, do, by these presents constitute and appoint you to be 
colonel of the first battalion of Virginia forces, in the army of the United Col- 
onies, raised for the defence of American liberty, and for repelling every hos- 
tile invasion thereof. You are, therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge 



PATRICK HENRY. 133 

signed that which he held from the state. His resignation pro- 
duced a commotion in the camp, which wore at first an alarm.- 
ing aspect ; and would probably have had an extremely unpro- 
pitious effect on the military efforts of the state, had it not been 
instantaneously quelled by his own patriotic exertions. The 
following is the notice of this transaction from Purdie's paper 
of March first, seventeen hundred and seventy-six : — 

" Yesterday morning, the troops in this city being informed 
that Patrick Henry, esquire, commander-in-chief of the Virginia 
forces, was about to leave them, the whole went into deep 
mourning, and being under arms, waited on him at his lodg- 
ings, when they addressed him in the following manner: — 

" ' To Patrick Henry, jun., Esquire. 
"'Deeply impressed with a grateful sense of the obligations 
we lie under to you, for the polite, humane, and tender treat- 
ment manifested to us through the whole of your conduct, 
while we had the honour of being under your command, per- 
mit us to offer you our sincere thanks, as the only tribute we 
have in our power to pay to your real merits. Notwithstand- 
ing your withdrawing yourself from the service fills us with 
the most poignant sorrow, as it at once deprives us of our 
father and general ; yet, as gentlemen, we are compelled to 
applaud your spirited resentment to the most glaring indigni- 
ty. May your merit shine as conspicuous to the world in gen- 
eral, as it hath done to us, and may Heaven shower its choicest 
blessings upon you !' 

*' To which he returned the following answer : — 
" 'Gentlemen — I am exceedingly obliged to you for your 
approbation of my conduct. Your address does me the high- 
est honour. This kind testimony of your regard to me would 
have been an ample reward for services much greater than 

the duty of colonel, by doing and performing all manner of things thereunto 
belonging. 

" And we do strictly charge and require all officers and soldiers under your 
command to be obedient to your orders as colonel. And you are to obseive 
and follow such orders and directions, from time to time, as you shall receive 
from this or a future congress of the United Colonies, or committee of con- 
gress, for that purpose appointed, or commander-in-chief for the time being of 
the army of the United Colonies, or any other superior officer, according to 
the rules and discipline of war, in pursuance of the ^rust reposed in you. This 
commission to continue in force until revoked by tWs nr a future congress. 
" By order of the Congress, 



** Attest, 

"Charlks Thomson, Secretary. 
*' rhiladelphia, Feb. I3th, 1776." 

12 



■ John Hancock, President. 



those I have had the power to perform. I return you, and 
each of you, gentlemen, my best acknowledgments for the 
spirit, alacrity, and zeal you have constantly shown in your 
several stations. I am unhappy to part with you. I leave the 
service, but I leave my heart with you. May God bless you, 
and give you success and safety, and make you the glorious 
instrument of saving our country.' 

" After the officers had received Colonel Henry's kind an- 
swer to their address, they insisted upon his dining with them 
at the Raleigh tavern, before his departure : and after dinner a 
number of them proposed escorting him out of town, but were 
prevented in their resolution by some uneasiness getting among 
the soldiery, who assembled in a tumultuous manner, and de- 
manded their discharge, declaring their unwillingness to serve 
under any other commander ; upon which Colonel Henry 
found it necessary to stay a night longer in town ; which he 
spent in visiting the several barracks, and used every argument 
in his power with the soldiery, to lay aside their imprudent 
resolution, and to continue in the service which he had quitted 
from motives in which his honour alone was concerned ; and 
that, although he was prevented from serving his country in a 
military capacity, yet his utmost abilities should be exerted for 
the real interest of the united colonies, in support of the glori- 
ous cause in which they have engaged. 

" This, accompanied with the extraordinary exertions of 
Colonel Christian and other officers present, happily produced 
the desired effect, the soldiers reluctantly acquiescing : and we 
have now the pleasure to assure the public, that those brave 
fellows are now pretty well reconciled, and Avill spend the last 
drop of their blood in their country's defence." 

This is the man who has been sometimes branded as a tur- 
bulent, seditious, factious demagogue ! Had he been of this 
character, what an occasion was here to have provoked it to 
action ! This love for the man and the officer, and this resent- 
ment of the indignities to which he had been subjected, were not 
confined to the camp at WilHamsburgh ; they pervaded the 
whole army, and were felt and expressed by the following ad- 
dress, signed by upward of ninety officers at Kemp's landing 
and Suffolk, {in Colonel Woodford's camp,) as well as at Wil- 
liamsburgh ; and printed by their desire in Purdie's paper of 
the twenty-second of March, seventeen hundred and seventy- 
five : — 

" Sir — Deeply concerned for the good of our country, we 
sincerely lament the unhappy necessity of your resignation, 
and with all the warmth of affection assure you, that, whatever 
may have given rise to the indignity lately offered to you, wc 



PATRICK HENRY. 136 

join with the general voice of the people, and think it our duty 
to make this public declaration of our high respect for your 
distinguished merit. To your vigilance and judgment as a 
senator this united continent bears ample testimony ; while she 
prosecutes her steady opposition to those destructive ministe- 
rial measures which your eloquence first pointed out and taught 
to resent, and your resolution led forward to resist. 

" To your extensive popularity the service also is greatly in- 
debted, for the expedition with which the troops were raised ; 
and, while they were continued under your command, the firm- 
ness, candour, and politeness, which formed the complexion of 
your conduct toward them, obtained the signal approbation of 
the wise and virtuous, and will leave upon our minds the most 
grateful impression. Although retired from the immediate 
concerns of war, we solicit the continuance of your kindly at- 
tention. We know your attachment to the best of causes ; we 
have the fullest confidence in your abilities, and in the recti- 
tude of your views ; and however willing the envious may be 
to undermine an established reputation, we trust the day will 
come, when justice shall prevail, and thereby secure you an 
honourable and happy return to the glorious employment of 
conducting our councils, and hazarding your life in the defence 
of your country. 

" With the most grateful sentiments of regard and esteem, 
we are, sir, very respectfully, your most obliged and obedient 
humble servants." 

If any doubt can be entertained as to the body to which this 
imputation of envy pointed, it will be removed by the following 
defence of the committee of safety, extracted from the sup- 
plement to Purdie's paper of the fifteenth of March, seventeen 
hundred and seventy-six : — 

"Mr. Purdie — I am informed a report is prevailing through 
the colony, that the committee of safety were the cause of 
Colonel Henry's resigning the command of his battalion; which 
it is supposed hath received confirmation from the address of 
the officers to that gentleman, in which they speak of a glar- 
ing indignity having been offered him, if it was not wholly 
derived from that source. That the good people of the coun- 
try may be truly informed in this matter, the following state of 
facts is submitted, without comment, to the impartial judgment 
of the public : — 

" As soon as the last convention had voted the raising seven 
new battalions of troops, besides augmenting the old ones, the 
committee of safety informed our delegates to congress of that 
vote, desiring they would use their best endeavours to have the 
whole supported at continental expense ; in answer to which. 



136 wirt's life 0¥ 

a letter was received from the delegates, dated the thirtieth of 
December, of which the following is an extract : ' The resolu- 
tions of congress for taking our six additional [they would not 
agree to take our other two] battalions, into continental pay, 
and for permitting an exportation for supplying our country- 
men with salt, are enclosed.' 

" It was supposed from hence, an intention prevailed in con- 
gress to pass by the two old battalions, and take six of the 
new ones into continental pay ; which, as it was said those 
officers would take precedency of provincial ones of equal rank, 
was generally thought wrong, since it would degrade the offi- 
cers of the two first battalions ; and, to avoid this, the conven- 
tion came to a resolution, the tenth of January, of which the 
following is part : ' Should the congress adhere to their reso- 
lution of taking into continental pay no more than six battal- 
ions, let it be earnestly recommended to them to suffer our two 
present battalions (to be completed as before mentioned) to 
stand first in the arrangement ; since, otherwise, the officers 
first appointed by this convention, most of whom have already 
gone through a laborious and painful service, will be degraded 
in their ranks, and there is too much reason to apprehend that 
great confusion will ensue.' 

" The worthy gentlemen (not a member of the committee of 
safety) who proposed this resolution, informed the convention, 
he had consulted some of the officers of the first regiment, who 
wished to have their rank preserved, though it was foreseen 
the pay would be reduced. 

" The committee of safety, in a letter to the delegates, dated 
the twenty-fifth of January, enclosing this resolution, thus 
write : ' You have a list of the field officers as they stand re- 
commended, and we doubt not receiving the commissions in 
the like order, with blanks for the proper number of captains 
and subalterns. If, however, the resolution of congress should 
be unalterably fixed to allow us but six battalions, you will 
please to attend to that part of the resolve which recommends 
their being the first six, as a point of great consequence to our 
liarmony, in which may be involved the good of the common 
cause.' 

" The committee of safety afterward received the commis- 
sions wholly filled up for the field officers of six battalions, in 
the rank they stood recommended by the convention, begin- 
ning with Colonel Henry, and ending with Colonel Buckner of 
the sixth battalion, with directions to deliver them. Colonel 
Henry was accordingly offered his commission, which he de- 
clined accepting, and retired without assigning any reasons. 

"As to the general officers, the convention left them en- 



PATRICK HENkY. 137 

tirely to the choice of the congress, without recommenda- 
tion ; nor did the committee of safety at all intermeddle in that 
choice. " A Friend to Truth." 

Immediately following this defence of the committee, in the 
same paper, are the two following articles : — 

" Mr. Purdie — The address of the othcers to Colonel Hen- 
ry, and the colonel's reply, have led some of our enemies to 
hope that there would be great discontent in the army, by 
which our military operations would be retarded, and that there 
would be a considerable murmuring against the congress ; but 
they are much mistaken. It is true the soldiers and officers 
v/ere very unhappy at parting with so amiable a commander as 
Colonel Henry ; and might be a little imprudent in some ex- 
pressions on the occasion ; but there is not a man of them who 
is not so warmly attached to the glorious cause he is engaged 
in, as to serve with alacrity under any commander, rather than 
it should suffer. 

" And Colonel Henry himself is a gentleman of so much 
honour, and so true a patriot, that he will never countenance a 
murmur against the congress ; nay so far from it, that it is 
highly probable he will soon be found in that august assembly, 
urging v/ith his powerful eloquence, the necessity of prosecu- 
ting the war with redoubled vigour. I am a sincere friend to 
the congress and to Colonel Henry." 

" Mr Purdie, 

**' ' Envy will merit as its shade pursue : 

But, like the shadow, proves the substance true.' — Pope. 

*'I was not surprised to see, in your last week's gazette, the 
resignation of Patrick Henry, esquire, late commander-in-chief 
of all the Virginia forces, and colonel of the first regiment. 
From that gentleman's amiable disposition, his invariable per- 
severance in the cause of liberty, ive apprehend that envy 
strove to bury in obscurity his martial talents. Fettered and 
confined, with only an empty title, the mere echo of authority., 
his superior abilities lay inactive, nor could' be exerted for 
his honour, or his country'' s good. 

"Virginia may truly boast, that in him she finds the able 
statesman, the soldier's father, the best of citizens, and liber- 
ty's dear friend. Clad with innocence, as in a coat-of-mail. he 
is proof against every serpentile whisper. The officers and 
soldiers, who know him, are riveted to his bosom ; when he 
speaks, all is silence ; when he orders, they cheerfully obey ; 
and in the field, under so sensible, so prudent an officer, though 
hosts oppose them, with shouts they meet their armed foe, the 
sure presages of victory and success. 

13* 



138 f 

" Let us, my countrymen, 'with grateful hearts, remember 
that he carried off the standard of liberty, and defeated Gren- 
ville in his favourite stamp-act. 

"'While many dreaded, till with pleasing eye, 
^ Saw tyranny before brave Henry fly.' 

" I am, Mr. Purdie, your friend, and a well-wisher to Vir- 
ginia. " An Honest Farmer." 

It is very clear from the last piece, as well as from the ad- 
dress of the ninety officers, which has been already given, and 
which was published by their desire in a paper subsequent to 
that which contains the defence of the committee, that that de- 
fence had been by no means satisfactory ; and that either the 
committee as a body, or what is more probable, some individ- 
ual or individuals of it, were still believed to have had a secret 
hand in planning and directing the series of indignities which 
had driven Mr. Henry from a military life. 

It would seem that the truly respectable and venerable chair- 
man of that committee came in at the time for his full propor- 
tion of this censure, and that he smarted severely under it : 
this I infer, from a letter of his to Colonel Woodford some 
time afterward, in answer to one by which that gentleman had 
consulted him as to the propriety of his resigning his commis- 
sion. After having dissuaded him from this step by other top- 
ics, he proceeds thus : — "I am apprehensive that your resigna- 
tion will be handled to your disadvantage, from a certain 
quarter, where all reputations are sacrificed for the sake of 
one ; what does it signify, that he resigned without any such 
cause, or assigning any reason at all ? it is not without exam- 
ple, that others should he censured for what he is applauded 
for:' 

This acrimony, so unusual from a man of Mr Pendleton's 
benevolence and courtesy, could have been wrung from him 
only by the bitterest provocations ; and renders it highly prob- 
able, that the numerous and enthusiastic admirers of Mr. Hen- 
ry had implicated this gentleman deeply in the indignities 
which had recently been offered to their favourite. 

The necessity of placing this incident of Mr. Henry's life 
in its true light, upon the evidence in my possession, has im- 
posed upon me a very painful duty in regard to Mr. Pendleton. 
With the justice or injustice of the construction placed upon 
his conduct in relation to Mr. Henry, I have nothing to do. 
Even if just, the infirmity of human nature may be easily ex- 
cused in feeling some uneasiness at the eclipsing brightness 
with which Mr. Henry had rushed, like a comet, to the head of 
affairs in Virginia. 



PATRICK HENRY. * 139 

It demands, however, no uncommon measure of charity to 
believe, that what was imputed to envy at the time, proceeded, 
so far as Mr. Pendleton was concerned, from a single eye to 
the public good, and a sincere belief on his part, (an opinion 
in which he was by no means singular,) that Mr. Henry's inex- 
perience in military affairs made it unsafe to commit to his 
management the infancy of our war. 

The people required to be animated by success in the onset ; 
and it was therefore very natural in the committee of safety, on 
whom the responsibility for the management of the war de- 
volved, to select, for the first enterprises, the most experienced 
commander. Mr. Pendleton was too virtuous a man, and too 
faithful a patriot, to have yielded consciously to any other 
motive of action than the public good. His country has fixed 
its seal upon his exalted character, and the writer of these 
sketches is much more disposed to brighten than to efface the 
impression. 

The motives of Mr. Henry's resignation of his commission 
which have been staled, are very easily and clearly deducible 
from the papers of the day, and were expressly avowed by him 
to his confidential friends and brother-in-law, Colonel Mere- 
dith.* To other friends, however, he stated that he was 
the more reconciled to the necessity which had compelled 
him to resign, because he believed that he could perhaps serve 
the cause of his country more effectually in the public councils 
than in the field. f 

Immediately upon his resignation he was elected a delegate 
to the convention from the county of Hanover. The session 
of that body, which was now coming on, was pregnant with 
importance. Dunmore had abdicated the chair of government, 
and the royal authority in the colony was seen and felt no long- 
er, but in acts of hostility. 

The king had declared from his throne, that the colonists 
must be reduced by force to submit to the British claim of tax- 
ation ; and the colonists, on their part, had avowed that they 
never would submit to this prostration of their rights ; but, on 

* These are Colonel Meredith's words : — " P. H. in a communication to Colo- 
nel M. stated his motives for resigning his commission as colonel. He con- 
ceived himself neglected, by younger officers having been put above him, and 
preferred to him ; particularly in the affair of the Great Bridge, where he wish- 
ed to have commanded ; but Colonel Woodford received that appointment. 
He disliked his being kept in and about Williamsburgh, and not appointed to 
some important post or expedition. He was thus induced to think he was 
neglected by those ^ho had the power of appointment. He therefore re- 
eigned." 

t Judge Tyler, an' Captain George Dabney. 



liO ' wirt's life of 

the contrary, that they would hand down to their children the 
birthright of liberty which they had enjoyed, or perish in the at- 
tempt. On this quarrel arms had been taken up on both sides, 
and the appeal had been made to the God of battles. The war 
had assumed a regular and settled form ; blood had been pro- 
fusely shed in various parts of the continent, and reconcilia- 
tion had become hopeless. 

The people being thus abandoned by their king, put out of 
his protection, declared in a state of open rebellion, and treated 
as enemies, the social compact which had united the monarch 
with his subjects was at an end ; the colonial constitution, 
which could be set and kept in motion only by the presence 
and agency of the king or his representative, was of course dis- 
solved ; and all the rights and powers of government reverted, 
of necessity, to their source, the people. These causes produ- 
ced the convention. 

It was the organ by which the people chose to exercise the 
fundamental rights thus thrown back upon them, by the disso- 
lution of the regal government. It was the substitute for the 
whole government which had been withdrawn — legislative, ex- 
ecutive, and judiciary. It represented the whole political pow- 
er of the people ; and had been expressly elected to take care 
of the republic. The means of accomplishing this object were 
left to themselves, without limitation or restriction on the part 
of the people. 

Hitherto, while any hope of a restoration of the original gov- 
ernment on just terms could be entertained, the convention had 
been satisfied with temporary expedients ; the first convention, 
however, had exercised the power of the people in their highest 
capacity, by adopting a species of constitution, and organizing a 
government under it ; thus they erected an executive, under the 
name of a committee of safety, which the people recognised as 
flowing directly from themselves. 

Before the meeting of the convention of seventeen hundred 
and seventy-six, however, it was seen and well understood on 
every hand, that the contest could not be maintained by the peo- 
ple, without the aid of regular government : and that the polit- 
ical malady of which they complained, could be extirpated in 
no other way than by applying the knife to the root. The 
newspapers of the preceding year contain frequent suggestions 
of this kind ; the impression had now become universal ; and 
the papers present specimens of explicit instructions from the 
people to their delegates to this effect.* 

♦The following are instructions from the freeholders of James' city to their 
delegates : — 



PATRICK HENRY. ^ 141 

Thus instructed in the sentiments of their constituents, and 
representing the people in their highest sovereign capacity, the 
convention met on the sixth of May, seventeen hundred and 
seventy-six, in the old capitol in the city of Williamsburgh. Mr. 
Pendleton having been elected president, after having thanked 
the house for the honour done him, addressed them with great 
solemnity, in the following terms : — " We are now met in general 
convention according to the ordinance for our election, at a time 
truly critical, when subjects of the most important, and inter- 
esting nature require our serious attention. 

\" The administration of justice, and almost all the powers of 
government, have now been suspended for near two years. It 
will become us to reflect whether we can longer sustain the 
great struggle we are making in this situation." Having then 
directed their attention to certain specific subjects which re- 
quired attention, he concluded his short, but impressive address, 
by exhorting the members to calmness, unanimity, and dili- 
gence. 

" To Robert C. Nicholas, and William Norvell, Esquires : — 

" Gentlemen — In vain do we congratulate ourselves on the impotency of 
the minister to divide us, if our union amounts to nothing more than a union 
in one common lethargy. War hath been brought into our houses, heightened 
by terrors and cruelties which the justest cause wants even palliatives for; but 
faint advances toward peace, insidiously urged, have caught the ear of the 
credulous, and groundless hopes of accommodation deluded the timid, so that 
the free military system remains untouched in most essential points. As if 
our inexperience, poverty in warlike stores, and the infancy of our navy, were 
of trifling moment, we have ventured to neglect resources in such difficulties, 
which Heaven hath placed within our attainment. 

*' Alliances may be formed at an easy price, capable of supplying these dis- 
advantages, but nn independent state disdains to humble herself to an equality 
in treaty with another, who cannot call her politics her own ; or to be explicit, 
she cannot enter into a negotiation with those who denominate themselves 
rebels, by resistance, and confession of a dependancy. 

" Reasons, drawn from justice, policy, and necessity, are everywhere at 
hand for a radical separation from Great Britain. From justice ; for the blood 
of those who have fallen in our cause cries aloud, 'It is time to part.' From 
necessity, because she hath, of herself, repudiated us by a rapid succession of 
insult, injury, robbery, murder, and a formal declaration of war. These are but 
few, and some of the weakest arguments which the great volume of our op- 
pression opens to every spirited American. 

" It cannot be a violation of our faith now to reject the terms of 1763. 
They are a qualified slavery at best, and were acceptable to us, not as the 
extent of our right, but the probable cause of peace ; but since the day in 
which they were most humbly offered as the end of animosities, an interval 
hath passed, marked with tyranny intolerable. 

" We, therefore, whose names are hereunto subscribed, do request and 
instruct you, our delegates, (provided no just and honourable terms are offered 
by the king,) to exert your utmost ability, in the next convention, toward 
dissolving the connexion between America and Great Britain, totally, finally 

AND IRREVOCABLY." 



14S WIRT*S LIFE OF 

On the fifteenth of May, Mr. Gary reported from the commit- 
tee of the whole house on the state of the colony, the following 
preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted : — 

" Forasmuch as all the endeavours of the United Colonies, 
by the most decent representations and petitions to the king 
and parliament of Great Britain, to restore peace and security to 
America under the British government, and a reunion with that 
people upon just and liberal terms, instead of a redress of griev- 
ances, have produced, from an imperious and vindictive admin- 
istration, increased insult, oppression, and a vigorous attempt 
to effect our total destruction. By a late act, all these colo- 
nies are declared to be in rebellion, and out of the protection of 
the British crown ; our properties subjected to confiscation ; 
our people, when captivated, compelled to join in the murder 
and plunder of their relations and countrymen ; and all former 
rapine and oppression of Americans declared legal and just. 
Fleets and armies are raised, and the aid of foreign troops en- 
gaged to assist these destructive purposes. 

" The king's representative in this colony hath not only 
withheld all the powers of government from operating for our 
safety, but, having retired on board an armed ship, is carrying 
on a piratical and savage war against us ; tempting our slaves, 
by every artifice, to resort to him, and training and employing 
them against their masters. In this state of extreme danger, 
we have no alternative left, but an abject submission to the will 
of those overbearing tyrants, or a total separation from the 
crown and government of Great Britain : uniting and exerting 
the strength of all America for defence, and forming alliances 
with foreign powers for commerce and aid in war. 

*' Wherefore, appealing to the Searcher of hearts for the sin- 
cerity of former declarations, expressing our desire to preserve 
the connexion with that nation, and that we are driven from 
that inclination by their wicked councils, and the eternal laws 
of self-preservation, 

*' Resolved, unanimously^ That the delegates appointed to 
s. represent this colony in general congress, be instructed to pro- 
\pose to that respectable body, to declare the united colo- 
nies FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, absolvcd from all alle- 
giance to, or dependance upon, the crown or parliament of 
Great Britain ; and that they give the assent of this colony to 
such declaration, and to whatever measures may be thought 
proper and necessary by the congress for forming foreign 
alliances, and a confederation of the colonies, at such 
time, and in the manner, as to them shall seem best. Provided, 
that the power of forming government for, and the regulation 



PATRICK H£NRY. 143 

of, the internal concerns of each colony, be left to the respect- 
ive colonial legislatures. 

*• Resolved, unanimously ^ That a committee be appointed to 
prepare a declaration of rights, and such a plan of gov- 
ernment as will be most likely to maintain peace and order in 
this colony, and secure substantial and equal liberty to the 
people." 

This measure was followed by the most lively demonstrations 
of joy. The spirit of the times, is interestingly manifested by 
the following paragraph from Purdie's paper of the seventeenth 
of May, which immediately succeeds the annunciation of the 
resolutions : — 

" In consequence of the above resolutions, universally re- 
garded as the only door which will lead to safety and pros- 
perity, some gentlemen made a handsome collection for the 
purpose of treating the soldiery, who next day were paraded in 
Waller's grove, before Brigadier-General Lewis, attended by 
the gentlemen of the committee of safety, the members of the 
general convention, the inhabitants of this city, &c., &c. The 
resolutions being read aloud to the army, the following toasts 
were given, each of them accompanied by a discharge of the 
artillery and small arms, and the acclamations of all present : — 

" 1. The American Independent States. 

*' 2. The grand Congress of the United States, and their 
respective legislatures. 

" 3. General Washington, and victory to the American arms. 

"The Union Flag of the American States waved upon the 
capitol during the whole of this ceremony ; which being ended, 
the soldiers partook of the refreshments prepared for them by 
the affection of their countrymen, and the evening concluded 
with illuminations, and other demonstrations of joy ; every one 
seeming pleased that the domination of Great Britain was now 
at an end, so wickedly and tyrannically exercised for these 
twelve or thirteen years past, notwithstanding our repeated 
prayers and remonstrances for redress." 

The committee appointed to prepare the declaration and 
plan of government, called for by the last resolution, were the 
following : — Mr. Archibald Gary, Mr. Meriwether Smith, Mr. 
Mercer, Mr. Henry Lee, Mr. Treasurer, Mr. Henry, Mr. 
Dandridge, Mr. Gilmer, Mr. Bland, Mr. Digges, Mr. Carring- 
ton, Mr. Thomas Ludvvell Lee, Mr. Cabell, Mr. Jones, Mr. 
Blair, Mr. Fleming, Mr. Tazewell, Mr. Richard Gary, Mr. Bul- 
litt, Mr. Watts, Mr. Bannister, Mr. Page, Mr. Starke, Mr. David 
Mason, Mr. Adams, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Thomas Lewis ; to 
whom were afterward successively added, Mr. Madison, Mr. 



144 wirt's life of 

Ruthford, Mr. Watkins, Mr. George Mason, Mr. Harvie, Mr. 
Curie, and Mr. Holt. 

On Wednesday, the twelfth of June following, that declara- 
tion of rights which stands prefixed to our statutes, was reported 
and adopted without a dissenting voice ; as was also, on Sat- 
urday, the twenty-ninth of the same month, the present plan 
of our government. 

The striking similitude between the recital of wrongs prefixed 
to the constitution of Virginia, and that which was afterward 
prefixed to the Declaration of Independence of the United 
States, is of itself sufficient to establish the fact that they are 
from the same pen. But the constitution of Virginia preceded 
the Declaration of Independence, by nearly a month; and was 
wholly composed and adopted while Mr. JeflTerson is known to 
have been out of the state, attending the session of congress 
at Philadelphia. From these facts alone, a doubt might nat- 
urally arise whether he was, as he has always been reputed, 
the author of that celebrated instrument, the Declaration of 
American Independence, or at least the recital of grievances 
which ushers it in ; or whether this part of it, at least, had not 
been borrowed from the preamble to the constitution of Vir- 
ginia. 

To remove this doubt, it is proper to state, that there now 
exists among the archives of this state an original rough draught 
of a constitution for Virginia, in the hand-writing of Mr. Jef- 
ferson, containing this identical preamble, and which was for- 
warded by him from Philadelphia, to his friend Mr. Wythe, to 
be submitted to the committee of the house of delegates. The 
body of the constitution is taken principally from a plan pro- 
posed by Mr. George Mason ; and had been adopted by the 
committee before the arrival of Mr. Jefferson's plan ; his pre- 
amble, however, was prefixed to the instrument ; and some of 
the modifications proposed by him introduced into the body 
of it. 

The salary of the governor to be appointed under the new 
constitution was immediately fixed by a resolution of the house 
at one thousand pounds per annum ; and the house proceeded 
to elect forthwith the first republican governor for the com- 
monwealth of Virginia. This was the touchstone of public 
favour. The oflace was of the first importance ; and the whole 
state was open to the choice of the house. The question was 
decided on the first ballot. The vote stood thus : — 
For Patrick Henry, jun. Esq. - - - 60 
Thomas Nelson, Esq. - - - - 45 
John Page, Esq. 1 

Whereupon it was ** Resolved, That the said Patrick Henry, 



PATRICK HENRY. 145 

jun. Esq., be governor of this commonwealth, to continue in 
that office until tlie end of the succeedinf^ session of assembly 
after the last of March next; and that Mr. Mason, Mr. Henry 
Lee, Mr. Digges, Mr. Blair, and Mr. Dandridge, be a com- 
mittee to wait upon him, and notify such appointment." 

On Monday, the lirst of July, Mr. George Mason, of this 
committee, reported, that they had performed the duty assigned 
them, and that the governor had been pleased to return the 
following answer to the convention : — 

'^ To the Ho 710 m- able the President and House of Con- 
vention: — 

" Gentlemen — The vote of tliis day, appointing me governor 
of the commonwealth, has been notified to me in the most po- 
lite and obliging manner, by George Mason, Henry Lee, Dudley 
Digges, John Blair, and Bartholomew Dandridge, esquires. 

"A sense of the high and unmerited honour conferred upon 
me by the convention, fills my heart with gratitude, which I 
trust my whole life will manifest. I take this earliest oppor- 
tunity to express my thanks, which I wish to convey to you, 
gentlemen, in the strongest terms of acknowledgment. 

"When I reflect that the tyranny of the British king and 
I»arliament hath kindled a formidable war, now raging through- 
out this wide-extended continent, and in the operations of 
which this commonwealth must bear so great a part; and that, 
from the events of this war, the lasting happiness or misery of 
a great proportion of the human species will finally result ; that, 
in order to preserve this commonwealth from anarchy, and its 
attendant ruin, and to give vigour to our councils, and effect to 
all our measures, government hath been necessarily assumed, 
and new-modelled ; that it is exposed to numberless hazards, 
and perils, in its infantine state ; that it can never attain to ma- 
turity, or ripen into lirmness, unless it is guarded by an affec- 
tionate assiduity, and managed by great abilities; I lament my 
want of talents ; I feel my mind filled with anxiety and uneasi- 
ness, to find myself so unequal to the duties of that important 
station, to which I am called by the favour of my fellow-citizens 
at this truly critical conjuncture. The errors of my conduct 
shall be atoned for, so far as I am able, by unwearied endeav- 
ours to secure the freedom and happiness of our common 
country, 

" I shall enter upon the duties of my office, whenever you, 
gentlemen, shall be pleased to direct; relying upon the known 
wisdom and virtue of your honourable house to supply my 
defects, and to give permanency and success to that system of 
government which you have formed, and which is so wisely 

K 11^ 



Ito wirt's life of 

calculated to secure equal liberty, and advance human hap- 
piness. 

"I have the honour to be, gentlemen, 

" your most obedient and very humble servant, 

"P. Henry, jun." 

Mr. Henry was also immediately greeted with the following 
affectionate address, from the two regiments which he had re- 
cently commanded : — 

*' To his excellency Patrick Henry, jun. Esq., governor of 
the commonwealth of Virginia : — The humble address of 
the first and second Yirginia regiments : — 

*'May it please your excellency: — 

" Permit us with the sincerest sentiments of respect and joy, 
to congratulate your excellency upon your unsolicited pro- 
motion to the highest honours a grateful people can bestow. 

" Uninfluenced by private ambition, regardless of sordid 
interest, you have uniformly pursued the general good of your 
country ; and have taught the world, that an ingenuous love of 
the rights of mankind, an inflexible resolution, and a steady 
perseverance in the practice of every private and public virtue, 
lead directly to preferment, and give the best title to the hon- 
ours of our uncorrupted and vigorous state. 

"Once happy under your military command, we hope for 
more extensive blessings from your civil administration. 

" Intrusted as your excellency is, in some measure, with the 
support of a young empire, our hearts are willing, and arms 
ready, to maintain your authority as chief magistrate ; happy 
that we have lived to see the day, when freedom and equal 
rights, established by the voice of the people, shall prevail 
through the land. We are, may it please your excellency, 
your excellency's most devoted and most obedient servants." 
To which he returned the following exquisite answer: — 
*' Gentlemen of the first and second Virginia regiments : — 

"Your address does me the highest honour. Be pleased to 
accept my most cordial thanks for your favourable and kind 
sentiments of my principles and conduct. 

"The high appointment to which my fellow-citizens have 
called me, was, indeed, unmerited, unsolicited. I am, there- 
fore, under increased obligations to promote the safety, dignity, 
and happiness of the commonwealth. 

"While the civil powers are employed in establishing a 
system of government, liberal, equitable, in every part of which 
the genius of equal liberty breathes her blessed influence, to 
you is assigned the glorious task of saving, by your valour all 



PATRICK MENRY. I4t 

that is dear to mankind. Go on, gentlemen, to finish the great 
work you have so nobly and successfully begun. Convince the 
tyrants again, that they shall bleed, that America v/ill bleed to 
her last drop, ere their wicked schemes find success. 

" The remembrance of my former connexion with you shall 
ever be dear to me. I honour your profession, I revere that 
patriot virtue, which, in your conduct, hath produced cheerful 
obedience, exemplary courage, and contempt of hardship and 
danger. Be assured, gentlemen, I shall feel the highest plea- 
sure in embracing every opportunity to contribute to your hap- 
piness and welfare ; and I trust the day will come, when I shall 
make one of those that will hail you among the triumphant de- 
liverers of America. 

"I have the honour to be, gentlemen, 

*' Your most obedient and very humble servant, 

'* P. Henry, jun." 

When it is said that Mr. Henry was not successful as a 
writer, the remark must be understood as applicable only to 
those extended compositions in which it was necessary to digest 
and arrange a mass of arguments with skill and effect, and to 
give them beauty as well as order. In his short effusions, when 
excited by strong feelings, he was sometimes very happy ; of 
which the above answer is a very pleasing specimen. 

The first council appointed under the constitution were, 
John Page, Dudley Digges, John Taylor, John Blair, Benja- 
min Harrison, of Berkeley, Bartholomew Dandridge, Thomas 
Nelson, and Charles Carter, of Sherley, esquires. Mr. Nelson 
(the same gentleman who had received so honourable a vote as 
governor) declined the acceptance of the office, on account of 
his age and infirmities ; and his place was supplied by Mr. 
Benjamin Harrison, of Brandon. 

The governor's palace, together with the out-buildings be- 
longing to itin Williamsburgh, having, by a previous resolution, 
been appropriated as a public hospital, was, by a resolution of 
the first of July, restored to its original destination ; and the 
committee who had been appointed to notify the governor of 
his election, were now directed to inform him of the desire of 
the convention, that he would make the palace his place of 
residence. On the fifth of July the sum of one thousand 
pounds was directed by the house, to be laid out in furniture for 
the palace^ including the furniture already there, belonging to 
the country ; and on the same day, the governor and members of 
the privy council took their respective oaths of office, and en- 
tered at once upon the discharge of their constitutional duties 



148 wirt's life of 



CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. Henry's Administration as Governor of Virginia — Disasters of the Rev- 
olution — Their Effects — A prospect of making a Dictator is originated in 
Virginia — Mr. Henry vindicated — His Re-election in 1777 — The plot to sup- 
plant General Washington — Anonymous Disclosures to Mr. Jienry — Let- 
ters to Washington on that subject — Washington'^ Reply — Mr. Henry again 
re-elected in 1778 — .Narration of the Case of Josiah Philips — Mr. Plenry 
declines a fourth Election — Death of liis Wife — He remarries— General 
Gates enters Richmond in disgrace — Mr. Henry's Resolution in favour of 
that Oflicer — General Gates's Reply — Dispiritmg State of Affairs — Meeting 
of the Assembly at Richmond — Mr. Plarrison elected Speaker — Tarlton 
makes a Descent upon the Town — Arrival of the French — Termhiation of 
the Revolution — Mr. Plenry's Course as Member of the Assembly — He 
advocates the Return of the Refugees — Sentiments on Freedom of Com- 
merce — Bill for Intermarriages with the Indians — Incorporation of religious 
Socielie.s — Bill for establishing a Provision for Teachers of Religion — Visit 
of Lafayette and Washington to Richmond — Reminiscences of Mr. Henry 
by a Cotemporary — Comparison between Him and Mr. Lee — Judge Stuart's 
delineation of Mr. Henry's Eloquence — He is again elected Governor of 
Virginia in 1784 — Resigns in 1786 — Resumes the Practice of the Law — 
The Federal Constitution adopted at Philadelphia. 

Shortly after Mr. Henry's election as governor, Lord 
Dunmore was driven from Gwinn's Island, and from the state, 
tu return to it no more ; and Virginia was left in repose from 
every external enemy. No opportunity, therefore, was afforded 
to the governor to distinguish himself in the exercise of that 
important constitutional power which created him the com- 
mander-in-chief of the forces of the state. Duties, however, 
of more importance than lustre, remained for the executive of 
the state — in keeping up the ardour of the commonwealth in 
the public cause — in furnishing and forwarding their quota of 
military supplies to the grand continental army — in awakening 
the spirit of t'ne state to the importance of discipline, and pre- 
paring the militia for the effectual discharge of their routine of 
duty — in watching and crushing the intrigues of the tories who 
slili infested the state, and v/ent about clandestinely, preaching 
disaffection to the patriot cause, and submission to Great Britain 
— in counteracting the schemes of speculating monopolists and 
extortioners, who sought to avail themselves of the necessities 
of the times, and to grow rich by preying on the misfortunes of 
ihe people — in short, in eradicating and removing those nu- 
merous moral diseases, which spring up with so much fecundity, 
and flourish so luxuriantly, amid the calamities of a revolution — 
and in keeping the body politic pure and healthy in all its parts. 

The numerous and well directed proclamations with which 
I lie papers of the day abounded, attest the vigilance and 
cnerjiy with which these duties were performed. To enter 



PATRICK HENRY. 149 

upon a detail of them, would be to write the history of Virginia 
during this period, instead of the life of Mr. Henry ; a work 
wholly unnecessary, since it has been already executed with 
minuteness and fidelity by an elegant writer, * whose work will 
probably see the light before these sketches. I shall confine 
myself to a few prominent incidents of Mr. Henry's adminis- 
tration, on account of some of which a degree of censure has 
been unjustly, I think, attached to his character. 

The fall of the year 1776 was one of the darkest and most 
dispiriting periods of the revolution. The disaster at Long 
Island had occurred, by which a considerable portion of the 
American army had been cut off — a garrison of between three 
and four thousand men had been taken at Fort Washington — 
and the American general, with the small remainder, disheart- 
ened, and in want of every kind of comfort, was retreating 
through the Jerseys before an overwhelming power, which 
spread terror, desolation, and death, on every hand. This was 
the period of which Paine, in his Crisis, used that memorable 
expression : — " These are the times which try the souls of 
men !" For a short time the courage of the country fell. 
Washington alone remained erect, and surveyed with godlike 
composure the storm that raged around him. Even the heroism 
of the Virginia legislature gave way ; and, in a season of de- 
spair, the mad project of a dictator was seriously meditated. 

ThatMr. Henry was thought of for this office, has been alleged, 
and is highly probable ; but that the project was suggested by 
him, or even received his countenance, I have met with no one 
who will venture to affirm. There is a tradition that Colonel 
Archibald Cary, the speaker of the senate, was principally in- 
strumental in crushing this project ; that meeting Colonel 
Syme, the step-brother of Colonel Henry, in the lobby of the 
house, he accosted him very fiercely in terms like these: — "I 
am told that your brother wishes to be dictator : tell him from 
me, that the day of his appointment shall be the day of his 
death — for he shall feel my dagger in his heart before the sunset 
of that day ;" and the tradition adds, that Colonel Syme, in 
great agitation, declared, " that if such a project existed, his 
brother had no hand in it, for that nothing could be more foreign 
to him, than to countenance any office which could endanger, in 
the most distant manner, the liberties of his country." 

The intrepidity and violence of Colonel Cary's character 
renders the tradition probable; but it furnishes no proof of 
Mr. Henry's implication in the scheme. It is most certain, 
that both himself and his friends have firmly and uniformly 

* Mr. L. H. Girardin, the continuator of Burk's History of Virginia. 

13* 



>&<5 

persisted in asserting his innocence ; antl there seems to be 
neither candour or justice in imputing to him, without evidence, 
a scheme which might just as well have originated in the as- 
sembly itself. It was not more than a month afterward, that 
congress actually did, witli relation to General Washington, 
very nearly what the Virginia legislature are said to have con- 
templated in regard to Mr. Henry ; they invested him with 
powers very little short of dictatorial : yet no one ever sus- 
pected General Washington of having prompted the measure 
Why then shall Mr. Henry be suspected ? 

Neither General Washington himself, nor any other patriot, 
had maintained the principles of the revolution M'ith more consis- 
tency and uniformity than Patrick Henry ; and it will certainly 
never satisfy a fair inquirer, to attempt to balance a suspicion, 
without the shadow of proof, against the whole course of a long 
and patriotic life. The charge, moreover, seems preposterous. 
What advantage could a rational man promise himself from the 
dictatorship of a single state, embarked with twelve other sover- 
eign and independent states, in one common cause ; a cause, 
too, now so well understood by the whole body of the Americat. 
people, and in which all their souls were so intensely engaged? 
The man who was at the head of the armies of the union, migh* 
have played the part of Cesar or Cromwell, had he possessed 
their wicked spirit ; but what could the dictator of a single state 
do, and that, too, a state offinri and enlightened patriots ? 

It is impossible to believe that the legislature themselves couh. 
have entertained a doubt of Mr. Henry's innocence ; since at 
the next annual election for governor, which took place on the 
thirtieth of May, seventeen hundred and seventy-seven, he was 
re-elected unajiimovshj ; the house being composed of nearly 
the same members, and the same Colonel Cary being speaker 
of the senate. This honourable proof of confidence, by those 
who best knew the whole case — who watched, with a scrutiny 
so severely jealous, the conduct of our prominent men — ant^ 
among whom were some who derived no pleasure from th; 
public honours of Mr. Henry — will be decisive of this question, 
with every man who is dispassionately searching for the truth, 
and is willinor to find it. 

This very honourable mark of the confidence of the legisla 
ture, in re-electing him unanimously to the office of governor, 
affected Mr. Henry most sensibly ; and to the committee who 
announced it to him, he gave the following answer : — 

" Gentlemen : The signal honour conferred on me by the 
general assembly in their choice of me to be the governor o< 
this commonwealth, demands my best acknowledgments, which 



PATRICK HENRY. 151 

I beg the favour of you to convey to them in the most accepta- 
ble manner. 

"I shall execute the duties of that high station, to which I 
am again called by the favour of my fellow-citizens, according 
to the best of my abilities, and' I shall rely upon the candour 
and wisdom of the assembly, to excuse and supply my defects. 
The good of the commonwealth shall be the only object of my 
pursuit, and I shall measure my happiness according to the suc- 
cess whicli shall attend my endeavours to establish the public 
liberty. I beg to be presented to the assembly ; and that they 
and you will be assured, that I am, with every sentiment of the 
highest regard, their and your most obedient and very humble 
servant, 

"P.Henry." 
It was in the course of this year's administration of the gov- 
ernment by Mr. Henry, th^t that memorable plot which dis- 
graces our history, was formed to supplant General Washing- 
ton. This is said to have proceeded from the glory which 
General Gates had gained by the capture of Burgoyne and his 
army at Saratoga, and was believed to have been suggested by 
General Gates himself. The plot is said to have been an ex- 
tensive one, and to have embraced some of the members of 
congress, and many officers of the army. The high estimate 
which Mr. Henry had formed of the abilities of General Wash- 
ington, while that illustrious man was comparatively unknown 
to his countrymen, has been already stated. This estimate, in- 
stead of having been lowered, had been confirmed and raised 
by subsequent events. 

Mr. Henry Avas too cool and judicious an observer of events, 
to have imputed to the commander-in-chief the disasters of the 
autumn of seventeen hundred and seventy-six. His masterly 
retreat through the Jerseys, the brilliant strokes of generalship 
exhibited at Trenton and Princeton, and above all, that singular 
constancy of soul with which he braved adversity, had excited his 
grateful admiration, and established Washington in his heart as 
one of the first of human beings. He not only admired hira as 
a general, but revered him as a patriot, and loved him as a 
friend. Feeling for General Washington sentiments like these, 
the reader may judge of the indignation and horror with which 
he read the following anonymous letter, addressed to him by 
one of the conspirators against that father of his country : — 
" YoRKTowN, January 12th, 1778. 
" Dear sir : The common danger of our country first brought 
you and me together. I recollect with pleasure the influence 
of your conversation and eloquence upon the opinions of this 
country, in the beginning of the present controversy. You 



152 wirt's life of 

first taught us to shake off out idolatrous attachment to royalty 
and to oppose its encroachments upon our liberties, with our 
very lives. By these means you saved us from ruin. The in- 
dependence of America is the offspring of that liberal spirit of 
thinking and acting which followed the destruction of the scep- 
tres of kings, and the mighty power of Great Britain. 

" But, sir, we have only passed the Red sea. A dreary 
wilderness is still before us, and unless a Moses or a Joshua 
ure raised up in our behalf, we must perish before we reach the 
promised land. We have nothing to fear from our enemies on 
the way. General Howe, it is true, has taken Philadelphia ; 
but he has only changed his prison. His dominions are bound- 
ed on all sides, by his out-sentries. America can only be un- 
done by herself. She looks up to her councils and arms for 
protection; but alas ? what are they? Her representation in 
congress dwindled to only twenty-one members — her Adams — 
her Wilson — her Henry, are no more among them. Her coun- 
cils weak — and partial remedies applied constantly for univer- 
sal diseases. 

" Her army — what is it ? a major-general belonging to it, 
called it a few days ago, in my hearing, a moh. Discipline 
unknown or ivholly neglected. The quartermaster and com- 
missary's departments filled with idleness, ignorance, and pec- 
ulation — our hospitals crowded with six thousand sick, but 
half provided with necessaries or accommodations, and more 
dying in them in one month, than perished in the field during 
the whole of the last campaign. The money depreciating, 
without any effectual measures being taken to raise it — the 
country distracted with the Don Quixote attempts to regulate 
the prices of provisions — an artificial famine created by it, and 
a real one dreaded from it — the spirit of the people failing 
through a more intimate acquaintance with the causes of our 
misfortunes — many submitting daily to General Howe — and 
more wishing to do it, only to avoid the calamities which threat- 
en our country. 

" But is our case desperate? by no means. We have wisdom, 
virtue, and strength enough to save us, if they could be called 
into action. The northern army has shown us what Americans 
are capable of doing, with a general at their head. The spirit 
of the southern army is no way inferior to the spirit of the 
northern. A Gates, a Lee, or a Conway, would in a few weeks 
render them an irresistible body of men. The last of the above 
officers has accepted of the new office of inspector-general of 
our army, in order to reform abuses ; but the remedy is only a 
palliative one. 

" In one of his letters to a friend, he says, ' a great and good 



PATRICK HENRY. 163 

God hath decreed America to be free — or the * * * * * • 
and weak counsellors, would have ruined her long ago.' You 
may rest assured of each of the facts related in this letter. The 
author of it is one of your Philadelphia friends. A hint of his 
name, if found out by the handwriting, must not be mentioned 
to your most intimate friend. Even the letter must be thrown 
in the fire. But some of its contents ought to be made public, 
in order to awaken, enlighten, and alarm our country. I rely 
upon your prudence, and am, dear sir, with my usual attachment 
to you, and to our beloved independence, yours sincerely. 

" His Excellency P. Henry.^'' 

Mr. Henry did not hesitate a moment as to the course which 
it was proper for him to take with this perfidious letter : he 
enclosed it forthwith to General Washington, in the following 
frank and high-minded communication : — 

" WiLLiAMSBURGH, February 20, 1770. 

" Dear sir : You will no doubt, be surprised at seeing the 
enclosed letter, in which the encomiums bestowed on me are 
as undeserved, as the censures aimed at you are unjust. I am 
sorry there should be one man who counts himself my friend, 
who is not yours. 

*' Perhaps I give you needless trouble in handing you this 
paper. The writer of it may be too insignificant to deserve 
any notice. If I knew this to be the case, I should not have 
intruded on your time, which is so precious. But there may 
possibly be some scheme or party forming to your prejudice. 
The enclosed leads to such a suspicion. Believe me, sir, I 
have too high a sense of the obligations America has to you, to 
abet or countenance so unworthy a proceeding. The most ex- 
alted merit hath ever been found to attract envy. But I please 
myself with the hope, that the same fortitude and greatness of 
mind which have hitherto braved all the difficulties and dangers 
inseparable from your sts^tion, will rise superior to every at- 
tempt of the envious partisan. 

^* I really cannot tell who is the writer of this letter, Avhich 
not a little perplexes me. The handwriting is altogether 
strange to me. 

*' To give you trouble of this gives me pain. It would suit 
my inclination better to give you some assistance in the great 
business of the war. But I will not conceal anything from 
you by which you may be affected ; for I really think, your 
personal welfare and the happiness of America are inti- 
mately connected. I beg you will be assured of that high re- 
gard and esteem, with which I ever am, dear sir, your affec- 
tionate friend and very humble servant, " P. Henry 

" His Excellency General Washington.'''' 



154 



WIRT S LIFE OF 



Not having received any answer to this letter, and being 
filled with solicitude by the wicked conspiracy, he again wrote 
to General Washington, as follows : — 

" WiLLiAMSBURGH, Mavck 5, 1778. 

" Dear Sir : By an express which Colonel Finnic sent to 
camp, I enclosed you an anonymous letter, which I hope got 
safe to hand. 1 am anxious to hear something that will serve 
to explain the strange affair, which I am now informed is taken 
up respecting you. Mr. Curtis has just paid us a visit, and by 
him I learn sundry particulars concerning General Mifflin, that 
much surprised me. It is very hard to trace the schemes and 
windings of the enemies to America. I really thought that 
man its friend : however, I am too far from him to judge of his 
present ♦emper. 

" While you face the armed enemies of our liberty in the 
field, and by the favour of God have been kept unhurt, I trust 
your country will never harbour in her bosom the miscreant 
who would ruin her best supporter. I wish not to flatter ; but 
when arts, unworthy honest men, are used to defame and tra- 
duce you, I think it not amiss, but a duty, to assure you of that 
estimation in which the public hold you. 

"Not that I think any testimony I can bear is necessary for 
your support, or private satisfaction ; for a bare recollection of 
what is past must give you sufficient pleasure in every circum- 
stance of life. But I cannot help assuring you, on this occasion, 
of the high sense of gratitude which all ranks of men, in this 
your native country, bear to you. It will give me sincere 
pleasure to manifest my regards, and render my best services 
to you or yours. I do not like to make a parade of these 
things, and I know you are not fond of it : however, I hope the 
occasion will plead my excuse. 

" The assembly have, at length, empowered the executive 
here, to provide the Virginia troops serving with you 
with clothes, &c. I am making provision accordingly, and 
hope to do something toward it. Every possible assistance 
from government is afforded the commissary of provisions, 
whose department has not been attended to. It was taken up 
by me too late to do much. Indeed, the load of business de- 
volved on me is too great to be managed well. A French ship, 
mounting thirty guns, that has been long chased by the English 
cruisers, has got into Carolina, as I hear last night. 

"Wishing you all possible felicity, I am, my dear sir, 
" Your ever affectionate friend, 

" And very humble servant, 

"P. Henry. 

^^His Excellency General WasJiington,^^ 



PATRICK HENRY. 



im 



5n reply, Mr. Henry received, shortly afterward the two fol- 
lowing very cordial letters from the general : — 

"Valley Forge, March 27, 1778. 

"Dear Sir: About eight days past, I was honoured with 
your favour of the 20th ultimo. Your friendship, sir, in trans- 
mitting me the anonymous letter you had received, lays me 
under the most grateful obligations ; and, if anything could 
give a still a further claim to my acknowledgments, it is the 
very polite and delicate terms in which you have been pleased 
to make the communication. 

*' I have ever been happy in supposing that I held a place 
in your esteem, and the proof of it you have afforded on this 
occasion makes me peculiarly so. The favourable light in which 
you hold me is truly flattering ; but I should feel much .egret if 
I thought the happiness of America so intimately connected with 
ijny personal welfare, as you so obligingly seem to consider it. 
Ail I can say is, that she has ever had, and I trust she ever will 
have, my honest exertions to promote her interests. I cannot 
hope that my services have been the best, but my heart tells 
me they have been the best that I could render. 

"That I may hav-e €rred in using the means in my power 
for accomplishing th^ objects of the arduous, exalted station 
with which I am honoured, I cannot doubt: nor do I wish my 
•conduct to be exempted from the reprehension it may deserve. 
Error is the portion of humanity, and to censure it, whether 
'Committed by this or that public character, is the prerogative 
of freemen. 

"This is not the only secret and insidious attempt that has 
been made to wound my reputation. There have been others 
equally base, cruel, and ungenerous; because conducted with 
as little frankness, and proceeding from views, perhaps, as per- 
sonally interested. 

** I am, dear sir, &c. 

" George Washington. 
*' To his excellency 'Patriclc Henry, Esq., 
Governor of Virginia^ 

"Camp, March 1'^, 1778. 
" Dear Sir : .Tust as I was about to close my letter of yester- 
day, your favour of the fifth instant came to hand. I can only 
thank you again in the languague of the most undissembled 
gratitudefor your friendship, and assure you, the indulgent dis- 
position which Virginia in parficislar, and the states in general, 
entertain toward me, gives me the most sensible pleasure. 
The approbation of my country Is what I wish ; and as far as 
say abilities, and opportunity ^ill-permit, I hope I shall endeav- 



156 

our to deserve it. It is tfie highest reward to a feeling 
mind; and happy are they who so conduct themselves as to 
merit it. The anonymous letter with which you were pleased 
to favour me, was written by * * * *^ go far as I can judge 
from the similitude of hands. ****** 

"My caution to avoid everything that could injure the ser- 
vice, prevented me from communicating, except to a very few 
of my friends, the intrigues of a faction which I knew was 
formed against me, since it might serve to publish our internal 
dissensions ; but their own restless zeal to advance their views 
has too clearly betrayed them and made concealment on my 
part fruitless. I cannot precisely mark the extent of their 
views ; but it appeared, in general, that General Gates was to 
be exalted on the ruin of my reputation and influence. 

"This I am authorized to say from undeniable facts in my 
own possession — from publications, the evident scope of which 
could not be mistaken — and from private detractions industri- 
ously circulated. * * * * *, it is commonly 
supposed, bore the second part in the cabal ; and General Con- 
way, I know, was a very active and malignant partisan ; but 
I have good reason to believe, that their machinations have re- 
coiled most sensibly upon themselves. 

"I am, dear sir, &.C., "Geo. Washington. 

*' His excellency Patrick Henry, Esq. 
Governour of Virginia.^^ 

The plot did recoil on its contriver, and left General Wash- 
ington more firmly established than ever in the confidence of 
his countrymen. 

At the spring session of seventeen hundred and seventy- 
eight, Mr. Henry was again unanimously re-elected to the office 
of governor. Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Dandridge, and Mr. Page, 
the committee appointed to announce to him that event, re- 
ceived and reported the following answer : — 

" Gentlemen : The general assembly in again electing ma 
governor of this commonwealth, have done me very signal 
honour. I trust that their confidence thus continued in me, will 
not be misplaced. 

"I beg you will be pleased, gentlemen, to present me to the 
general assembly, in terms of grateful acknowledgment for this 
fresh instance of their favour toward me ; and to assure them, 
that my best endeavours shall be used to promote the public 
good, in that station to which they have once more been pleas- 
ed to call me." 

At this same session an act was passed, on account of which 
both Mr. Henry and the legislature have been, it is thought, 
improperly censured. I mean the act to attaint Josiah Phih 



PATRICK HENRY. 157 

ips. This man, in the summer of seventeen hundred and sev- 
enty-seven, at the head of a banditti, commenced a course of 
crimes in the counties of Norfolk and Princess Anne, which 
spread terror and consternation on every hand. Availing him- 
self of the disaffection which prevailed in that quarter, and 
taking refuge from occasional pursuit in the fastnesses of the 
Dismal Swamp, he had carried on a species of war against the 
innocent and defenceless, at the bare mention of which hu- 
manity shudders. 

Scarcely a night passed without witnessing the shrieks of 
women and children, flying by the light of their own burning 
houses, from the assaults of these merciless wretches ; and 
every day was marked by the desolation of some farm, by rob- 
beries on the highway, or the assassination of some individual 
whose patriotism had incurred the displeasure of this fierce 
and bloody leader of banditti. Every attempt to take them 
had hitherto proved abortive ; when in May, seventeen hun- 
dred and seventy-eight, the governor received the following 
letter from Colonel John Wilson : — 

"Norfolk County, Mat/ 20, 1778. 

" Honourable Sir : I received your letter the fourteenth 
instant of the twelfth April, respecting the holding the militia 
in readiness, and my attention to the arms and accoutrements, 
which I shall endeavour to comply with as far as in my power : 
that much, however, may not be expected from this county, I 
beg to observe, that the militia, of late, fail much in appearing 
at musters, submitting to the trifling fine of five shillings, which, 
they argue, they can afford to pay, by earning more at home ; 
but I have reason to fear, through disaffection. With such a 
set of men, it is impossible to render any service to country 
or county. 

" A few days since, hearing of the ravages committed by Phil- 
ips and his notorious gang, I ordered fifty men to be raised out 
of four companies, consisting of upward of two hundred : of 
those only ten appeared, and it being at a private muster, I 
compelled twenty others into duty, putting them under the 
command of Captain Josiah Wilson, who immediately marched 
after the insurgents; and that very night, one fourth of his 
men deserted. Captain Wilson still pursued, but to no pur- 
pose : they were either taken to their secret places in the 
swamp, or concealed by their friends, that no intelligence could 
be obtained. He then returned, his men declaring they could 
stay no longer, on account of their crops. 

" I consider, therefore, that rather than that they should 
wholly desert, it mijrht be better to discharge them, and wait 
the coming of Xhe Nansemond militia, when I trusted some- 

14 



158 wirt's life of 

thing might be done : but oT those men I can hear no tidings ; 
and unless they or some other better men do come, it will be 
out of my power to effect anything with the militia of this 
county ; for such is their cowardly disposition, joined to their 
disaffection, that scarce a man, without being forced, can be 
raised to go after the outlyers. 

" We have lost Captain Wilson since his return : having some 
private business at a neighbour's, within a mile of his own 
house, he was fired on by four men concealed in the house, 
and wounded in such a manner that he died in a few hours; 
and this will surely be the fate of a iew others, if their request 
of the removal of the relations and friends of those villains 
be not granted, which I am again pressed to solicit for, and in 
which case neither assistance, pay, nor plunder, is expected ; 
conceiving that to distress their supporters is the only means 
by which we can root those wretches from us, and thereby es- 
tablish peace and security to ourselves and families. 
*' I am, with great respect, honourable sir, 

" Your most obedient humble servant, 

"John Wilson." 
*■'■ May 24. — A company of about fifty men are now come 
from Nansemond ; but I am informed by the captain, that they 
will not be kept above two days, five having deserted already. 

" John Wilson." 
The governor immediately enclosed this letter to the house 
of delegates, with the following communication : — 
" The Honourable Benjamin Harrison, Esq., Speaker of the 
House of Delegates. 

" Williamsburgh, May 'HI, 1778. 
"Sir : I was alwa^^s unwilling to trouble the general assem- 
bly with anything that seemed of too little consequence for 
deliberation. In that view I have for some time considered the 
insurrection in Princess Anne and Norfolk. I have from time 
to time given orders to the commanding officers of those coun- 
ties, to draw from the militia a force sufficient to quell it. These 
officers have often complained of the difficulty of the business, 
arising partly from the local circumstances attending it, but 
chiefly from the back\rardness and even disaffection of the peo- 
ple. In order to remove the latter obstacle, I gave orders for 
one hundred men to be drawn out into this service, from Nan- 
semond county ; but I am sorry to say, the almost total want of 
discipline in that and too many other militias in the state, seems 
to forbid the hope of their doing much to effect. 

" Col. Wilson, whose letter I enclose, has several times given 
me to understand, that, in his opinion, the removal of such 
families as are in league with insurgents, was ^ step absolutely 



PATRICK HENRY. IGO 

necessary, and has desired me to give orders accordingly. But 
thinking that the executive power is not competent to such a 
purpose, I must beg leave to submit the whole matter to the 
assembly, who are the only judges how far the methods of 
proceeding directed bylaw are to be dispensed with on this oc- 
casion. 

" A company of regulars, drawn from the several stations, 
will be ordered to co-operate with the militia, though indeed 
their scanty numbers will not permit it to be done without 
hazard. But I cannot help thinking this ought to be encoun- 
tered ; for an apparent disposition to disturb the peace of this 
state has been manifested by these people during the whole 
course of the present war. It seems, therefore, that no effort 
to crush these desperadoes should be spared. 

" My duty would no longer suffer me to withhold these sev- 
eral matters from the view of the general assembly, to whom I 
beg leave to refer them through you. 
" With great regard, 

" I have the honour to be, sir, 

" Your most obedient humble servant, 

"P. Henry." 

This letter was communicated to the house on the day of its 
date, and was immediately referred to a committee of the whole 
house, on the state of the commonwealth. That committee 
was immediately formed ; but not having time to go through 
the subject, had leave to sit again. On the next day the house 
again resolved itself into a committee of the whole, and after 
some time spent therein, the speaker resumed the chair, and 
Mr. Carter reported on the subject of Philips, as follows: — 

" Information being received, that a certain 
Philips, with divers others, his associates and confederates, 
have levied war against this commonwealth within the counties 
of Norfolk and Princess Anne, committing murders, burning 
houses, wasting farms, and doing other acts of enormity, in de- 
fiance of the officers of justice — 

" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that if 
the said Philips, his associates, and confede- 

rates, do not render themselves to some officer, civil or mili- 
tary, within this commonwealth, on or before day 
of June, in this present year, such of them as fail so to do, 
ought to be attainted of high treason ; and that in the meantime, 
and before such render, it shall be lawful for any person, with 
or without orders, to pursue and slay, or otherwise to take and 
deliver to justice, the said Philips, his associates 
and confederates." 

Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Tyler, were the commit- 



160 wirt's life of 

tee appointed to prepare and bring in a bill, pursuant to thi» 
resolution, which was reported on the same day, and read the 
first time. On the two succeeding" days it was read a second 
and third time; and thus regularly passed through the forms 
of the louder house. It was communicated to the senate by Mr 
Jefferson, on the thirtieth day of the month, and returned, pass- 
ed by them, without amendment, on the first day of June, which 
was the last day of the session. The act, as it stands upon the 
statute book of the session, is as follows: — 
"'An act to attaint Josiah Philips and others, unless they ren- 
der themselves to justice within a certain time. 

" Whereas a certain Josiah Philips, labourer, of the parish 
of Lynhaven3.nd county of Princess Anne, together with divers 
others, inhabitants of the counties of Princess Anne, and Nor- 
folk, and citizens of this commonwealth, contrary to their 
fidelity, associating and confederating together, have levied war 
against this commonwealth, within the same, committing mur- 
ders, burning houses, wasting farms, and doing other acts of 
hostility in the said counties of Princess Anne and Norfolk, 
and still continue to exercise the same enormities on the good 
people of this commonwealth ; and, whereas, the delays which 
would attend the proceeding to outlaw the said offenders, ac- 
cording to the usual forms and procedures of the courts of law, 
would leave the said good people, for a long time exposed to 
murder and devastation: — 

" Be it, therefore, enacted by the general assembly, That if 
the said Josiah Philips, his associates and confederates, shall 
not, on or before the last day oi June, in the present year, ren- 
der themselves to the governor, or to some member of the privy 
council, judge of the general court, justice of the peace, or com- 
missioned oflicer of the regular troops, navy or militia of this 
commonwealth, in order to their trials for the treasons, mur- 
ders, and other felonies by them committed, that, then, such of 
them, the said Josiah Philips, his associates and confederates, 
as shall not so render him or themselves, shall stand and be 
convicted and attainted of high treason, and shall suffer the 
pa^ins of death, and incur all forfeitures, penalties, and disabili- 
ties, prescribed by the law against those convicted and attainted 
of high treason; and that execution of this sentence of attain- 
der shall be done, by order of the general court, to be entered 
so soon as may be conveniently, after notice that any of the 
said offenders are in custody of the keeper of the public jail. 

"And if any person committed to the custody of the keeper 
of the public jail, as an associate or confederate of the said 
Josiah Philips, shall allege that he has not been of his associ- 
ates or confederates, at any time after the first day of July, in 



PATRICK HENRY. 161 

the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy- 
seven, at which time the said murders and devastations were 
begun, a petit jury shall be summoned and charged, according 
to the forms of the law, to try, in the presence of the said courty 
the fact so alleged ; and if it be found against the defendant, 
execution of this act shall be done as before directed. 

"And that the good people of this commonwealth may not, 
in the meantime, be subject to the unrestrained hostilities of the 
said insurgents : Be it further enacted., That from and after the 
passing? of this act, it shall be lawful for any person, with or 
without orders, to pursue and slay the said Josiah Philips, and 
any others who have been of his associates or confederaies, at 
any time after the said first day of Jidy aforesaid, and shall not 
have previously rendered him or themselves to any of the offi- 
cers, civil or military, before described, or otherwise to take 
and deliver them to justice, to be dealt with according to law. 
Provided, that the person so slain be in arms at the time, or 
endeavouring to escape being taken." 

Philips was apprehended in the course of the autumn, and 
indicted by Mr. Edmund Randolph, attorney-general, /or hig-h- 
way-robbery, simply. On this charge he ivas tried at the Oc- 
tober term of the general court, convicted, and executed: so 
that the act of attainder was never brought to bear upon him at 
all. This is the whole case of Josiah Philips. The reader 
will judge whether Mr. Henry deserves censure for having 
communicated to the legislature the letter of Col. Wilson ; or 
whether that body acted with too much severity toward a wretch, 
who had not only set the laws of his country at defiance, but 
was waging a cruel and dastardly war upon men without arms, 
upon women and children ; and acting, not the part of a brave 
and open enemy, but that of an enemy of the human family. 

Just at the close of Mr. Henry's administration, Virginia 
suffered an invasion of a few days, under the British officers 
Collin and Matthew. They seized Fort Nelson, near Norfolk, 
destroyed the naval stores at Gosport, burnt Suff'olk, and dis- 
appeared before the militia could be rallied to chastise their in- 
solence. This occurred in the month of May, seventeen hun- 
dred and seventy-nine ; and the facility and impunity with which 
the enterprise was accomplished, very ])robably suggested the 
more serious invasion of the state, which afterward took place 
under the traitor Arnold. 

It would seem, that a wish was entertained to re-elect Mr, 
Henry to the office of governor a fourth time, although the con- 
stitution declared him ineligible after th j third year. The im- 
pression seems to have been that his appointment for the first 
year, not having been made by delegates who had themselves 

14* 



162 wirt's life of 

been elected under the constitution, ought not to be counted as 
one of the constitutional years of service. Mr. Henry, how- 
ever, had too scrupulous a respect for that instrument to accept 
the office, even in a doubtful case ; and, therefore, addressed 
the following letter to the speaker: — 

''May 28, 1779. 

"Sir: The term for which I had the honour to be elected 
governor by the late assembly being just about to expire, and 
the constitution, as I think, making me ineligible to that office, 
I take the liberty to communicate to the assembly through you, 
sir, my intention to retire in four or five days. 

"I have thought it necessary to give this notification of my 
design, in order that the assembly may have the earliest oppor- 
tunity of deliberating upon the choice of a successor to me in 
office. With great regard, 

"I have the honour to be, sir, 

" Your most obedient servant, 

"P. Henry." 

Thus closed Mr. Henry's administration : and although he 
had not an opportunity of distinguishing it by any splendid 
achievements, it is honour enough that he had given universal 
satisfaction, and that he retired with a popularity confirmed and 
increased. 

It has been thought best not to break the chain of the narra 
tive, as to his public character, by noticing the changes which 
had before this time occurred in his domestic relations. It 
may be proper to pause here for the purpose of supplying this 
omission. 

His wife, the partner of his youth, and the solace of his early 
adversities, had died in the year seventeen hundred and seventy- 
five, after having made him the father of six children. The 
anguish of this blow was mitigated by the circumstance of her 
having been, for several years, in a state of ill health and of 
suffering, from which there was no hope of recovery; and to 
her, therefore, death indeed "came like a friend to relieve her 
from pain." 

Neither had the father lived to witness the promotion of his 
son to the highest honours of the republic. He had lived how- 
ever, long enough to enjoy the first bloom of his fame, and to 
see him the most celebrated and rising character in the state. 
He had died about the year seventeen hundred and seventy, and 
left behind him a name highly respectable for every private and 
social virtue. 

His uncle, for whom he seems to have had a strong afi*ection, 
had died during his government, and in token of his affection 
and respect, had appointed him the executor of his will. 



PATRICK HENRY. 163 

His lender and indulgent mother still survived, and felt all 
^hat pure and exquisite delight, which the Vv'ell-deserved honours 
of her son were calculated to inspire. 

After the death of his Avife, Mr. Henry sold the farm called 
Scotch Town, on which he had resided in Hanover, and pur- 
chased eight or ten thousand acres of valuable land in the 
county of Henry ; a county which had been erected during his 
government, and which had taken its name from him, as did 
afterward its neighbouring county of Patrick. In the year sev- 
enteen hundred and seventy-seven, he intermarried with Doro- 
thea, the daughter of Mr. Nathaniel W. Dandridge, with whom, 
after the resignation or expiration of his office, he removed to 
his newly-acquired estate, called Leatherwood, and there re- 
sumed the practice of the law. In the year seventeen hundred 
and eighty, we find him again in the assembly, and one of the 
most active members in the house. 

During the winter session of this year. General Gates entered 
the city of Richmond from his southern campaign, where he 
had most wofully fulfilled General Lee's prediction.* His total 
defeat at Camden, and a series of subsequent ill fortune, had 
left South Carolina completely in the hands of the victorious 
British ; and to increase his humiliation, congress had not only 
superseded him in that command, by the substitution of General 
Greene, but had passed a resolution requiring the commander- 
in-chief to order a court of inquiry on his conduct. Under 
these accumulated disgraces, the unfortunate general entered 
the city of Richmond ; when Mr. Henry moved a resolution 
Avhich displays, in a most engaging light, the delicate and gene- 
rous sensibility of his character ; it was as follows : — 

" Resolved, That a committee of four be appointed to wait 
on Major-general Gates, and to assure him of the high regard 
and esteem of this house ; that the remembrance of his former 
glorious services cannot be obliterated by any reverse of for- 
tune ; but that this house, ever mindful of his great merit, will 
omit no opportunity of testifying to the world, the gratitude 
which, as a member of the American union, this country owes 
to him in his military character." 

The author may be permitted to say of a state, which is his 
only by adoption, that in an assembly of Virginians, this gen- 
erous resolution could not fail to pass unanimously. The 
committee appointed to communicate it to the general, were, 
Mr. Henry, Mr. Richard H. Lee, Mr. Zane, and General Nel- 
son. We may be assured, that a committee, chosen with so 

* When Gen. Charles Lee heard of Gen. Gates's appointment to the com- 
mand of the southern army, he foretold that *' his northern laurels would be 
turned into southern willovis.^^ 



164 wirt's life of 

much judgment,* discharged their duty in a manner the most 
grateful to the wounded feelings of the general ; and on the 
next day, Mr. Henry reported the following answer, which was 
spread upon the journal : — 

"Richmond, December 28, 1780. 

" Sir : I shall ever remember with the utmost gratitude, the 
high honour this day done me by the honourable the house of 
delegates of Virginia. When engaged in the noble cause of 
freedom and the United States, I devoted myself entirely to the 
service of obtaining the great end of their union. That I have 
been once unfortunate is my great mortification ; but, let the 
event of my future services be v/hat they may, they will, as 
they always have been, be directed by the most faithful integ- 
rity, and animated by the truest zeal for the honour and interest 
of the United States. "Horatio Gates." 

The spring and summer of the next year presented a period 
of even deeper darkness than the autumn of seventeen hundred 
and seventy-six. Virginia, had not, hitherto, been the theatre 
of hostile operations of a very serious character ; her sufferings 
had been rather those of sympathy with her northern and south- 
ern sisters ; but in this year the calamities of war were brought 
home to her own bosom. Arnold's invasion took place in Ja- 
nuary : having carried his ravages as high up as Richmond and 
Westham, he retired to Portsmouth, where he rested till April, 
when General Philips succeeded to the command, and paid an- 
other visit of desolation to Manchester. 

In the next month came Lord Cornwallis, with his victorious 
army from the south, driving everything before him, and stri- 
king terror into whatsoever quarter he approached. Having 
formed a junction between his forces and those under the com- 
majid of General Philips, there was no longer a military force 
in the state which had the power to resist him. The inferior 
body of republican troops, under the Marquis la Fayette, moved 
before him, without the ability to strike a blow ; and Cornwallis 
roamed at pleasure, and without any apprehension, through the 
interior of the state. 

The seventh of May was the day appointed by law for the 
meeting of the assembly at Richmond. A few members met 
and took the oaths prescribed bylaw; but the number not being 
sufficient to proceed to business, the house was adjourned from 
day to day until the tenth ; when, upon information of the ap- 

* Mr. Henry, the mover, had recently closed his administration with honour, 
as the first republican governor of Virginia, and was the most considerable man 
in the commonwealth ; Mr. Lee was a member of the congress, whose vote wo 
have just mentioned ; Mr. Zane represented the county in which Gen. Gates 
lived ; and Gen. Nelson was the most popular military character in the stale. 



PATRICK HENRY. 166 

proach of the enemy, they adjourned to the twenty-fourth, to 
meet at Charlottesville. It was not until the twenty-eighth, that 
a house was formed to proceed to business at this place ; when 
Mr. Benjamin Harrison was elected speaker, and after making 
the usual acknowledgments for that honour, proceeded to ad- 
dress the following remarks to the house ; which I quote, not 
because they are a very favourable specimen of Mr. Harrison's 
oratory, but to show the panic which prevailed even among the 
first men of the country : — 

"The critical and dangerous situation of our country leads 
me to hope, that my recommending it to you to despatch the 
weighty matters that will be under your consideration, with all 
convenient speed, will not be taken amiss ; the people expect 
that effectual and decisive measures will be taken to rid them 
of an implacable enemy, that are now roaming at large in the 
very bowels of our country, and I have no doubt of your an- 
swering their expectations ; the mode of doing this may indeed 
be difficult : but it not being my province to point it out, I shall 
leave it to your wisdom, in full confidence that everything that 
is necessary for quieting the minds and dispelling the fears of 
our constituents, will be done." 

Eight days after this address, Mr. John Jouett, a citizen of 
the place, entered the town on horseback, at full speed, and an- 
nounced the near and rapid approach of Tarlton, at the head 
of three hundred cavalry and mounted infantry. The house 
had just met, and was about to commence business, when the 
alarming cry of "Tarlton and the British," was spread through 
the village ; and they had scarcely taken time to adjourn infor- 
mally to Staunton, when Tarlton rushed like a thunderbolt into 
the village, in the confident expectation of seizing the whole 
assembly ; but the birds had flown. He made seven of them 
only prisoners. The rest ^reassembled in Staunton, on the sev- 
enth of June. On the tenth of June, a false report of his ap- 
proach produced another panic ; and the house having merely 
taken time to resolve that they would meet at the Warm Springs, 
if it should be found dangerous to meet in Staunton on the next 
day ; and on their failure so to do, that the speaker might call 
a meeting, when and where he pleased, again broke up and 
dispersed. 

It was at this period of almost hopeless darkness, when the 
energies of the state seemed to have been pretty nearly para- 
lyzed, that the project of a dictator was again revived ; and it 
is again highly probable, that Mr. Henry was the character who 
was in view for that office. Inquiries have been made of the 
surviving members of that assembly to ascertain whether the 
project could be traced to him, or whether he had any kind o( 



166 wirt's life of 

participation in the proposal; 'but those inquiries have resulted 
in a conviction of his entire innocence. The project came from 
other quarters, and seems to have been the last refuge of that 
general despair which for a short time pervaded the whole 
commonwealth. 

But this period of deep darkness was the harbinger of break- 
ing day. The morning dawned with the arrival of those aids 
from France, which Mr. Henry had so long ago predicted ; and 
the sun of American independence arose to set no more. He 
lived to witness the^glorious issue of that revolution which his 
genius had set in motion ; and (to repeat his own prophetic 
language, before the commencement of the struggle) "to see 
America take her stand among the nations of the earth." The 
contest closed with the capture of Cornwallis, at Little York, 
on the nineteenth of October, seventeen hundred and eighty- 
one ; and thus, the ball of the revolution rested in the same 
state in which it had received the first impulse. 

This enlightened and patriotic statesman, however, was not 
yet inclined to indulge himself in that repose to which he was 
so well entitled. The constitution of the state had as yet been 
tried only in war, when the sense of common danger, and their 
ardour in the common cause, might of themselves have been 
sufficient to keep the people together, and to supply, in a good 
degree, the place of government. It was necessary to see how 
the instrument would work in peace ; what assurance it gave 
of public order and well-regulated liberty ; or whether any, and 
what defects in the plan required amendment. 

There were other considerations, too, which called loudly for 
attention. The war had left the country in a most deplorable 
situation ; poor and in debt ; its warriors unrequited ; its finances 
wholly deranged ; its jurisprudence unsettled ; and all its facul- 
ties weak, disordered, and exhausted. This was no time for 
the patriot to quit his post. It demanded all his vigilance to 
guard the infant republic against the machinations of its enemies, 
both abroad and at home ; it required all his care and all his 
skill to heal the numerous disorders which had flowed from the 
war ; to nurse the new-born nation into health and strength ; to 
develop its resources, moral and physical ; and thus to give 
security and permanence to its liberties. 

With the view of contributing his aid to those great objects, 
Mr. Henry still continued to represent the county of his resi- 
dence, in the legislature of the state, and controlled the pro- 
ceedings of that body, with a weight of personal authority, and 
a power of eloquence, which it was extremely difficult, and in- 
deed almost impossible to resist. A striking evidence of this 
power was given, immediately on the close of the revolution, 



PATRICK HENRY. 167 

in his advocating the return of the British refugees. The mea- 
sure was most vehemently opposed. There was no class of 
human beings against whom such violent and deep-rooted pre- 
judices existed. The name of " British tory," was of itself 
enough, at that period, to throw almost any company in Vir- 
ginia into flames, and was pretty generally a signal for a coat 
of tar and feathers ; a signal which was not very often disobeyed. 
Mr. Henry's proposition in favour of a class of people so odious 
could not fail to excite the strongest surprise ; and was, at first, 
received with a repugnance apparently insuperable. 

The late Judge Tyler, then the speaker of the house, op- 
posed it in the committee of the whole, with great warmth ; and 
in the course of the discussion, turning from the chairman to 
Mr. Henry, he asked him, "how he, above all other men, could 
think of inviting into his family, an enemy, from whose insults 
and injuries he had suffered so severely?" To this Mr. Henry 
answered, that "the personal feelings of a politician ought not 
to be permitted to enter those walls. The question," he said, 
" was a national one, and in deciding it, if they acted wisely, 
nothing would be regarded but the interest of the nation. 

" On the altar of his country's good he was willing to sacri- 
fice all personal resentments, all private wrongs — and he flat- 
tered himself, that he was not the only man in the house who 
was capable of making such a sacrifice. We have, sir," said 
he, "an extensive country, without population — what can be a 
more obvious policy than that this country ought to be peopled ? 
— 'people, sir, form the strength, and constitute the wealth of a 
nation. I want to see our vast forests filled up by some process 
a little more speedy than the ordinary course of nature. I wish 
to see these states rapidly ascending to that rank which their 
natural advantages authorize them to hold among the nations of 
the earth. Cast your eyes, sir, over this extensive country — 
observe the salubrity of your climate ; the variety and fertility 
of your soil — and see that soil intersected in every quarter by 
bold, navigable streams, flowing to the east and to the west, as 
if the finger of Heaven were marking out the course of your 
settlements, inviting you to enterprise, and pointing the way to 
wealth. 

" Sir, you are destined, at some time or other, to become a 
great agricultural and commercial people; the only question is, 
whether you choose to reach this point by slow gradations, and 
at some distant period ; lingering on through a long and sickly 
minority ; subjected, meanwhile, to the machinations, insults, 
and oppressions of enemies, foreign and domestic, without 
sufficient strength to resist and chastise them ; or whether you 
choose rather to rush at once, as it were, \q the full enjoyment 



168 wirt's life of 

of those high destinies, and be able to cope, single-handed, with 
the proudest oppressor of the old world. 

If you prefer the latter course, as I trust you do, encourage 
emigration ; encourage the husbandmen, the mechanics, the mer- 
chants of the old world, to come and settle in this land of prom- 
ise ; make it the home of the skilful, the industrious, the fortunate 
and happy, as well as the asylum of the distressed ; fill up the 
measure of your population as speedily as you can, by the means 
which Heaven hath placed in your power ; and I venture to 
prophesy there are those now living, who will see this favoured 
land among the most powerful on earth ; able, sir, to take 
care of herself, without resorting to that policy which is always 
so dangerous, though sometimes unavoidable, of calling in 
foreign aid. 

" Yes, sir ; they will see her great in arts and in arms — her 
golden harvests waving over fields of immeasurable extent ; her 
commerce penetrating the most distant seas, and her cannon 
silencing the vain boasts of those who now proudly affect to 
rule the waves. But, sir, you must have men; you cannot get 
along without them ; those heavy forests of valuable timber, 
under which your lands are groaning, must be cleared away ; 
those vast riches which cover the face of your soil, as well as 
those which lie hid in its bosom, are to be developed and gath- 
ered only by the skill and enterprise of men ; your timber, sir, 
must be worked up into ships, to transport the productions of 
the soil from which it has been cleared ; then you must have 
commercial men and commercial capital, to take off your pro- 
ductions, and find the best markets for them abroad ; your 
great want, sir, is the want of men ; and these you must have, and 
will have speedily, if you are wise. 

"Do you ask how you are to get them? Open your doors, 
sir. and they will come in ; the population of the old world is 
full to overflowing; that population is ground, too, by the op- 
pressions of the governments under which they live. Sir, they 
are already standing on tiptoe upon their native shores, and 
looking to your coasts with a wistful and longing eye ; they see 
here a land blessed with natural and political advantages, which 
are not equalled by those of any other country upon earth ; 
aland on which a gracious Providence hath emptied the horn 
of abundance ; a land over which peace hath now stretched 
forth her white wings, and where content and plenty lie down 
at every door ! 

"Sir, they see something still more attractive than all this ; 
they see a land in which liberty, hath taken up her abode ; that 
liberty, whom they had considered as a fabled goddess, exist- 
ing only in the fancies of poets ; they see her here, a real di" 



PATRICK HENRY. l69 

vinity; her altars rising on every hand throughout these hdppy 
states ; her glories chanted by three millions of tongues ; and 
the whole region smiling under her blessed influence. Sir, let 
but this our celestial goddess, liberty, stretch forth her fair hand 
toward the people of the old world ; tell them to come, and bid 
them welcome ; and you will see them pouring in from the north, 
from the south, from the east, and from the west ; your wilder- 
nesses will be cleared and settled ; your deserts will smile ; your 
ranks will be filled ; and you will soon be in a condition to defy 
the powers of any adversary. 

*' But gentlemen object to any accession from Great Britain ; 
and particularly to the return of the British refugees. Sir, I 
feel no objection to the return of these deluded people ; 
they have, to be sure mistaken their own interests most 
wofully, and most wofully have they suffered the punish- 
ment due to their offences. But the relations which we bear to 
them and to their native country are now changed ; their king 
hath acknowledged our independence ; — the quarrel is over ; 
peace hath rptuv^ed u-nd found us a free people. Let us have 
me magnanimity, sir, to lay aside our antipathies and prejudices, 
and consider the subject in a political light. 

"Those are an enterprising, moneyed people; they will be 
serviceable in taking off the surplus produce of our lands, and 
supplying us with necessaries, during the infant state of our 
manufactures. Even if they be inimical to us in point of feel- 
ing and principle, I can see no objection, in a political view, in 
making them tributary to our advantage. And as I have no 
prejudices to prevent my making this use of them, so, sir, 1 
have no fear of any mischief that they can do us. Afraid of _ 
them ! — what, sir," — said he, rising to one of his loftiest atti- 
tudes, and assuming a look of the most indignant and sovereign 
contempt, — *' shall we, who have laid the proud British lion at 
our feet, now be afraid of his whelps ?" 

The force of this figure, and the energy with which it was 
brought out, are said to have produced an effect that made the 
house start simultaneously. It continued to be admired, long 
after the occasion which gave it birth had passed away, and was 
frequently quoted by Mr. Wythe to his students, while professor 
of law at William and Mary college, as a happy specimen of 
those valuable figures, which unite the beauty of decoration 
with the effect of argument. 

The gentleman (Judge Tyler) to whom I am indebted for the 
preceding incident, has favoured me also with the following 
one, which I shall give in his own words : — 

" Mr. Henry espoused the measure which took off the re- 
straints on British commerce, before any treaty was entered 
15 



170 

into; in which I opposed him on this ground, that that measure 
would expel from this country the trade of every other nation, 
on account of our habits, language, and the manner of conduct- 
ing business on credit between us and them: also on this 
ground, in addition to the above, that if we changed the then 
current of commerce, we should drive away all competition, 
and never perhaps should regain it, (which has literally hap- 
pened.) In reply to these observations, he was beyond all 
expression eloquent and sublime. 

" After painting the distresses of the people, struggling 
through a perilous war, cut off from commerce so long that 
they were naked, and unclothed, he concluded with a figure, 
or rather a series of figures, which I shall never forget, 
because, beautiful as they were in themselves, their effect was 
heightened beyond all description, by the manner in which he 
acted what he spoke : — ' Why,' said he, ' should we fetter com- 
merce ? If a man is in chains, he droops and bows to the earth, 
for his spirits are broken,' looking sorrowfully at his feet ; * but 
let him twist the fetters from his legs, and he will stand erect, 
— straightening himself, and assuming a look of proud defiance. 
Fetter not commerce, sir — let her be as free as air — she will 
range the whole creation, and return on the wings of the four 
winds of heaven, to bless the land with plenty.' " 

In the fall session of seventeen hundred and eighty-four, Mr. 
Henry proposed and advocated several measures which deserve 
particular mention : — one of them, on account of the originality 
and boldness of mind from which it proceeded ; and others, be- 
cause they have sometimes been made the subjects of censure 
against him. The first respects the Indians. Those unfortu- 
nate beings, the natural enemies of the white people, whom 
they regarded as lawless intruders into a country set apart for 
themselves by the Great Spirit, had continued, from their first 
landing, to harass the white settlements, and hang, like a pesti- 
lence on their frontier, as it advanced itself toward the west. 

The story of their accumulated wrongs, handed down by tra- 
dition from father to son, and emblazoned with all the colours 
of Indian oratory, had kept their war-fires smoking from age to 
age, and the hatchet and scalping-knife perpetually bright. 
They had long since abandoned the hope of being able, by their 
single strength, to exterminate the usurpers of their soil ; but 
either from the spirit of habitual and deadly revenge, or from 
the policy of checking, as far as they could, the perpetually ex- 
tending encroachments of the white men, they had waged an 
unremitting war upon their borders, marked with horrors which 
eclipse the wildest fictions of the legendary tale. These peo- 
ple, too, besides the mischiefs to which they were prompted by 



PATRICK HENRY. 171 

their own feelings and habits, were an ever-ready and a most 
terrific scourge, in the hands of any enemy with whom this 
country might be at variance. 

The stories of these border skirmishes, which yet live in the 
traditions of the west, are highly worthy of collection. They 
•exhibit scenes of craft, boldness, and ferocity, on the part of 
the savages, and of heroic and desperate defence by the semi- 
barbarous men, women, and children, who were the objects of 
these attacks, which mark the characters of both sides in a most 
interesting manner. Those tales of the long, obstinate, and 
bloody defence of log-cabins; of the almost incredible achieve- 
ments of women and little boys ; of the sometimes total and 
sometimes partial havoc of families ; of the captivity, tortures, 
and death of some ; and the miraculous escape, wanderings, and 
preservation of others — would form a book of more interest 
than any other that could be put into the hands of a Virginia 
reader ; and would furnish the subject of many a novel, drama, 
and painting. The adventure of Captain Smith and Pocahontas, 
if you put aside the dignity of their characters, is cold and tame, 
when compared with some which are related among the western 
inhabitants of this state. 

Dunmore, although thanked at the time for his services, was 
afterward believed, by the house of burgesses, to have made use 
of them in the years seventeen hundred and seventy-four and 
five, in order to draw off the attention of the colonists from the 
usurpation of the British court ; and, in the recent war of the 
revolution, that merciless enemy had been again let loose upon 
our frontier, with all the terrors of savage warfare. The return 
of peace with Britain had given us but a short respite from their 
hostilities. I perceive, by the journal of the house of delegates, 
that on the fifth of November, seventeen hundred and eighty- 
four, it was, on the motion of Mr. Henry, 

"Resolved, That the governor, with the advice of council, 
be requested to adopt such measures as may be found necessary 
to avert the danger of hostilities with the Indians, and to incline 
them to treat with the commissioners of congress ; and for that 
purpose to draw on the treasury for any sum of money not ex- 
ceeding one thousand pounds, which shall stand charged to the 
account of money issued for the contingent charges of govern 
ment." 

A treaty with the Indians, however, was well known to be a 
miserable expedient; the benefits of which would scarcely last 
as long as the ceremonies that produced it. The reflecting po- 
litician could not help seeing, that, in order to remove the an- 
noyance eff*ectually, the remedy must go to the root of the dis- 
ease — that that inveterate and fatal enmity which rankled in the 



172 WIRT*S LIFE OF 

hearts of the Indians must be eradicated — that a common inte 
rest and congenial feelings between them and their white neigh- 
bours must be created — and humanity and civilization gradually- 
superinduced upon the Indian character. The difficulty lay in 
devising a mode to effect these objects. The white people who 
inhabited the frontier, from the constant state of warfare in 
which they lived with the Indians, had imbibed much of their 
character ; and learned to delight so highly in scenes of crafty, 
bloody, and desperate conflict, that they as often gave as they 
received the provocation to hostilities. 

Hunting, which was their occupation, became dull and tire- 
some, unless diversified occasionally hy the more animated and 
piquant amusement of an Indian skirmish ; just as " the blood 
more stirs to rouse a lion than to start a hare." The policy, 
therefore, which was to produce the deep and beneficial change 
that was meditated, must have respect to both sides, and be cal- 
culated to implant kind affections in bosoms which at present 
were filled only with reciprocal and deadly hatred. The remedy 
suggested by Mr. Henry was to encourage marriages between 
these conterminous enemies; and having succeeded, in the 
committee of the whole house, in procuring the report of a res- 
olution to this effect, he prepared a bill which he is said to 
have advocated with irresistible earnestness and eloquence. 
The inducements held out by this bill, to promote these mar- 
riages, were, pecuniary bounties to be given on the certificate 
of marriage, and to be repeated at the birth of each child ; ex- 
emption from taxes ; and the free use of a seminary of learning, 
to be erected for the purpose, and supported at the expense of 
the state. 

This bill, which is thought worthy of preservation, as a polit- 
ical curiosity, is as follows : — 
" JL bill for the encouragement of marriages with the Indians. 

"Whereas, intermarriages between the citizens of this com- 
monwealth and the Indians living in its neighbourhood, may 
have great effect in conciliating the friendship and confidence 
of the latter, whereby not only their civilization may in some 
degree be finally brought^ »nt, but in the meantime, their hos- 
tile inroads be prevented : for encouraging such intermarriages. 

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That if any free 
white male inhabitant of this commonwealth shall, according to 
the laws thereof, enter into the bonds of matrimony with an 
Indian female, being of lawful age, and under no precontract to 
any Indian male, and shall thereby induce her to become an in- 
habitant of this commonwealth, and to live with him in the 
character of a wife, such male inhabitant, on producing a certifi- 
cate of such marriage, under the hand and seal of the person 



PATRICK HENRY. 173 

» 

ce*«*orating the same, shall be entitled to receive a premium of 

. pounds, out of any unappropriated money which the 

treasurer may have in his hands, or of such money as may 
hereafter be appropriated to such use ; shall, over and above 

such premium, be entitled to the sum of pounds, for every 

child proceeding from such marriage, on a certificate of the birth 
thereof, and their apparent cohabitancy, under the hand and seal 
of any one justice of the peace of the county in which he re- 
sides, and shall, moreover, be exempted from all taxes on his 
person and property for and during the time of such cohabitancy. 

^^And be it further enacted, That if any free female inhabit- 
ant of this commonwealth shall, in like manner, intermarry 
with any male Indian of lawful age, they shall, on a certificate 

thereof, as aforesaid, be entitled to pounds, to be paid as 

aforesaid, and laid out under the direction of the court of the 
county within which such marriage shall be celebrated, in the 
purchase of live stock, for his and her use, and such male In- 
dian shall be annually, on the first day of October, entitled to 
■ pounds, to be paid as aforesaid, and laid out under the di- 
rection of the said court, in the purchase of clothes for his use ; 
and each male child proceeding from such intermarriage, shall, 

at the age of be removed to such public seminary of 

learning, as the executive may direct, and be there educated 
until the age of twenty-one, at the public expense, to be defrayed 
out of such funds as may hereafter be appropriated to the same. 
And the governor, with the advice of council, is hereby author- 
ized and desired to cause the benefit of this provision to be ex- 
tended to all such male children ; and if any such male Indian 
shall become an inhabitant of this commonwealth, he shall be 
moreover exempted from all taxes on his person or the property 
he may acquire. 

^^And be it further enacted, That the offspring of the inter- 
marriages aforesaid, shall be entitled, in all respects, to the same 
rights and privileges, under the laws of this commonwealth, as 
if they had proceeded from intermarriages among free white 
inhabitants thereof. 

" And be it further enacted, That the executive do take the 
most effectual and speedy measures for promulgating this act to 
such tribe or tribes of Indians as they may think necessary." 

On the third reading of the bill, the first blank was filled with 
ten — the second with jive — the third with ten — the fourth with 
three — and the fifth with ten years. 

While Mr. Henry continued a member of the house, the 
progress of this bill was unimpeded. It passed through a first 
and second reading, and was engrossed for its final passage, 
when his election as governor took effect, and displaced him 

15* 



174 

from the floor: on the third day after which event the bill was 
read a third time and rejected. 

It were a useless waste of time to speculate on the probable 
effects of this measure, had it succeeded. It is considered, 
however, as indicative of great humanity of character, and as 
marked with great boldness, if not soundness of policy. Mr, 
Henry is said to have been extremely sanguine as to its efficacy, 
and to have supported it by some of the highest displays of his 
eloquence. 

The other two measures to which I have adverted, as having 
been patronised by Mr. Henry, at this session, were, the incor- 
poration of the Protestant Episcopal church, and what is called 
*' a general assessment." These measures have been frequently 
stated, in conversation, as proofs of a leaning on the part of 
Mr. Henry, toward an established church, and that, too, the 
aristocratic church of England. To test the justness of this 
charge, the journals of the house of delegates have been exam- 
ined, and this is the result of the evidence which they lurnish: 
on the seventeenthof November, seventeen hundred and eighty- 
four, Mr. Matthews reported from the committee o*! the whole 
house, on the state of the commonwealth, the following resolu- 
tion : — 

''''Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that acts 
ought to pass for the incorporation of all societies of the 
Christian religion, which may apply for the same.'''' 

The ays and noes having been called for, on the passage of 
this resolution, were, ays, sixty-two, noc«, twenty-three; Mr. 
Henry being with the majority. 

The principle being thus established in relation to all religious 
societies, which should desire a legal existence for the benefit 
of acquiring and holding property to the use of their respective 
churches, leave was given, on the same day, to bring in a bill 
to incorporate the clergy of the Protestant Episcopal church, 
which had brought itself within that principle by having applied 
for an act of incorporation; and Mr. Henry was one, but not 
the chairman,* of the committee appointed to bring in that bilL 
How a measure which holds out to all religious societies, 
equally, the same benefit, can be charged with partiality, be- 
cause accepted by one only, it is not very easy to discern. It 
would seem, to an ordinary mind, that on the same principle, 
the Christian religion itself might be charged with partiality, 
since its offers, though made to all, are accepted but by a few : 
and it is very certain, that if Mr. Henry is to be suspected of 

♦ The chairman was Mr. Carter H. Harrison ; the rest of the committee 
were, Mr. Henry;, Mr. Thomas Smith, Mr. William Anderson, and Mr. Taze- 
well 



PATRICK HENRY. 175 

k bias toward an established church, on account of this vote, 
the charge will reach some of the foremost and best-establish- 
ed republicans in the state, whose names stand recorded with 
Mr. Henry's on this occasion, and who hold to this day the 
undiminished confidence of their countrymen. 

The other measure, the general assessment, proceeded from 
a number of petitions from different counties of the common- 
werjth, which prayed that as all persons enjoyed the benefits 
Cu religion, all might be required to contribute to the expense 
of supporting some form of worship or other. The commit- 
tee to whom these petitions were referred, reported a bill 
whose preamble sets forth the grounds of the proceeding, and 
furnishes a conclusive refutation of the charge of partiality to 
any particular form of religion. The bill is entitled, " A bill, 
establishing a provision for teachers of the Christian religion ;" 
and its preamble is in the following words : — 

" Whereas the general diffusion of Christian knowledge 
hath a natural tendency to correct the morals of men, restrain 
their vices, and preserve the peace of society ; which cannot 
be effected without a competent provision for learned teachers, 
who may be thereby enabled to devote their time and attention 
to the duty of instructing such citizens as, from their circum- 
stances and want of education, cannot otherwise attain such 
knowledge ; and it is judged such provision may be made by 
the legislature, without counteracting the liberal principle 
heretofore adopted and intended to he preserved, by abolishing" 
all distinctions of pre-eminence among the different socie- 
ties or communities of Christians^ 

The provisions of the bill are in the strictest conformity with 
the principles announced in the close of the preamble ; the 
persons subject to taxes are required, at the time of giving in 
a list of their titheables, to declare to what particular religious 
society they chose to appropriate the sums assessed upon them, 
respectively ; and, in the event of their failing or declining to 
specify any appropriation, the sums thus circumstanced are 
directed to be paid to the treasurer, and applied by the general 
assembly to the encouragement of seminaries of learning, 
in the counties where such sums shall arise. 

If there be any evidence of a leaning toward any particular 
religious sect in this bill, or any indication of a desire for an 
established church, the author of these sketches has not been 
able to discover them. Mr., Henry was a sincere believer in 
the Christian religion, and had a strong desire for the success- 
ful propagation of the gospel, but there was no tincture of big- 
otry or intolerance in his sentiments ; nor have I been able to 
learn that he had a punctilious preference for any particulai 



il3^ WIRT*S LIFE OF 

form of worship. His faithi regarded the vital spirit of the 
gospel, and busied itself not at all with external ceremonies or 
controverted tenets. 

Both these bills, " for incorporating the Protestant Episcopal 
church," and "establishing a provision for teachers of the 
Christian religion," were reported after Mr. Henry had ceased 
to be a member of the house ; but the resolutions on which 
they were founded were adopted while he continued a mem- 
ber, and had his warmest support. The first bill passed into 
a law ; the last was rejected by a small majority on the third 
reading. 

The same session afforded Mr. Henry a double opportunity 
of gratifying, in the most exquisite manner, that naturally bland 
and courteous spirit, which so eminently distinguished his 
character. General Washington and the Marquis la Fayette, 
both of them objects of the warmest love and gratitude to this 
country, visited Richmond in November. They arrived on 
different days. The general entered the city on the fifteenth, 
and the journal of the next morning exhibits the following 
order : — 

*' The house being informed of the arrival of General Wash- 
ington in this city, Resolved, nemine contradicente, that as a 
mark of their reverence for his character, and affection for his 
person, a committee of five members be appointed to wait upon 
him, with the respectful regard of this house, to express to 
him the satisfaction they feel in the opportunity afforded by 
his presence of offering this tribute to his merits ; and to as- 
sure him that as they not only retain the most lasting impres- 
sions of the transcendant services rendered in his late public 
character, but have, since his return to private life, experienced 
proofs that no change of situation can turn his thoughts from 
the welfare of his country, so his happiness can never cease 
to be an object of their most devout wishes and fervent suppli- 
cations. 

*' And a committee was appointed of Mr. Henry, Mr. Jones, 
(of King George,) Mr. Madison, Mr. Carter H. Harrison, and 
Mr. Carrington." 

To this spontaneous and unanimous burst of feeling. Gen- 
eral Washington returned an answer marked with his char- 
acteristic modesty, and full of the most touching sensibility. 
It is worthy of insertion, as showing, in a soft and winning 
light, a character with which we are apt to associate only the 
images of a dignity and reserve, approaching to sternness. 
*' Gentlemen," said he, " my sensibility is deeply affected by 
this distinguished mark of the affectionate regard of your hon- 
ourable house. I lament, on this occasion, the want of those 



PATRICK HENRY. IT? 

powers which would enable me to do justice to my feelings ; 
and shall rely upon your indulgent report to supply the defect ; 
at the same time, I pray you to present for me, the strongest 
assurances of unalterable affection and gratitude, for this last 
pleasing and flattering attention of my country." 

The marquis, who had been to France since the close of hos- 
tilities, made his entree on the morning of the seventeenth of 
November ; and the house, immediately on its meeting, came 
to the following resolution : — 

" The house being informed of the arrival, this morning, of 
the Marquis de la Fayette in this city, Resolved, nemine con- 
tj'adicente, that a committee of five be appointed, to present to 
him the affectionate respects of this house, to signify to him 
their sensibility to the pleasing proof given by this visit to the 
United States, and to this state in particular, that the benevolent 
and honourable sentiments which originally prompted him to 
embark in the hazardous fortunes of America, still render the 
prosperity of its affairs an object of his attention and regard; 
and to assure him, that they cannot review the scenes of blood 
and danger through which we have arrived at the blessings of 
peace, without being touched, in the most lively manner, with 
the recollection, not only of the invaluable services for which 
the United States at large are so much indebted to him, but of 
that conspicuous display of cool intrepidity and wise conduct, 
during his command in the campaign of seventeen hundred and 
eighty-one, which, by having so essentially served this state in 
particular, have given him so just a title to its particular ac- 
knowledgments. That, impressed as they thus are with the 
distinguished lustre of his character, they cannot form a wish 
more suitable, than that the lesson it affords may inspire all 
those whose noble minds may emulate his glory, to pursue it 
by means equally auspicious to the interests of humanity. 

" And a committee was appointed of Mr. Henry, Mr. Mad- 
ison, Mr. Jones, (of King George,) Mr. Matthews, and Mr. 
Brent." 

To this address, the marquis made the following polite and 
feeling answer : — 

" Gentlemen : With the most respectful thanks to your 
honourable body, permit me to acknowledge, not only the flat- 
tering favour they are now pleased to confer, but also the con- 
stant partiality, and unbounded confidence of this state, which 
in trying times, I have so happily experienced. Through the 
continent, gentlemen, it is most pleasing forme to join with my 
friends in mutual congratulations ; and I need not add what my 
sentiments must be in Virginia, where step by step have I so 
keenly felt for her distress, so eagerly enjoyed her recovery. 



178 WIRT*8 LIFE OF 

" Our armed force was obliged to retreat, but your patriotic 
hearts stood unshaken ; and while, either at that period, or in our 
better hours, my obligations to you are numberless ; I am happy 
in this opportunity to observe, that the excellent services of 
your militia were continued with unparalleled steadiness. Im- 
pressed with the necessity of federal union, I was the more 
pleased in the command of an army so peculiarly federal ; as 
Virginia herself freely bled in defence of her sister states. 

"In my wishes to this commonwealth, gentlemen, I will per- 
severe with the same zeal, that once and for ever has devoted 
me to her. May her fertile soil rapidly increase her wealth — 
may all the waters which so luxuriantly flow within her limits, 
be happy channels of the most extensive trade — and may she in 
her wisdom, and the enjoyment of prosperity, continue to give 
the world unquestionable proofs of her philanthropy and her 
regard for the liberties of all mankind. 

"La Fayette." 

Time had now brought forward several new political charac- 
ters, who had risen high in the public estimation: but Mr. Henry 
and Mr. Lee still kept their ground far in the van. A gentle- 
man of great distinction, who began his public career in seven- 
teen hundred and eighty-three, found both these eminent 
men in the house of delegates, and heard them for the first 
time in debate : he served through the two sessions of that and 
those of the following year, and has communicated to me so 
vivid and interesting a comparison of their merits, as they struck 
his young and ardent mind, that I cannot consent to withhold it 
from the reader. 

" I met with Patrick Henry in the Assembly in May, seven- 
teen hundred and eighty-three. I also then met with Richard H. 
Lee. I lodged with Mr. Lee one or two sessions, and was 
perfectly acquainted with him, while I was yet a stranger to 
Mr. Henry. These two gentlemen were the great leaders in 
the house of delegates, and were almost constantly opposed : 
there were many other great men who belonged to that body; 
but, as orators, they cannot be named with Henry or Lee. Mr. 
Lee was a polished gentlemen : he had lost the use of one of 
his hands, but his manner was perfectly graceful. 

*' His language was always chaste, and although somewhat 
too monotonous, his speeches were always pleasing ; yet he 
did not ravish your senses, nor carry away your judgment by 
storm. His was the mediate class of eloquence described by 
Rollin in his helles lettres ; he was like a beautiful river, mean- 
dering through a flowery mead, but which never overflowed its 
banks. It was Henry who was •the mountain torrent that 
swept away everything before it: it was he alone who thun- 



PATRICK HENRY. 179 

dered and lightened : he alone attained that sublime species of 
eloquence also mentioned by RoUin. 

" It has been one of the greatest pleasures of my life to hear 
these two great masters, almost constantly opposed to each 
other, for several sessions. I had no relish for any other 
speaker. Henry was almost always victorious. He was as 
much superior to Lee in temper as in eloquence ; for while, 
with a modesty approaching almost to humility, he would apol- 
ogise to the house for being so often * obliged to differ from 
the honourable gentleman, which he assured them, was 
from no want of respect for him.' Lee was frequently much 
chafed by the opposition ; and I once heard him say aloud, and 
petulantly, after sustaining a great defeat, that, ' if the votes 
were weighed instead of being counted, he should not have 
lost it.'* 

*' Mr. Henry was inferior to Mr. Lee in the gracefulness of 
his action, and perhaps also in the chasteness of his language: 
yet his language was seldom incorrect, and his address always 
striking. He had a fine blue eye, and an earnest manner, 
which made it impossible not to attend to him. His speaking 
was unequal, and always rose with the subject and the exigency. 
In this respect he differed entirely from Mr, Lee, who was al- 
ways equal, and therefore less interesting. At some times, 
Mr. Henry would seem to hobble, (especially at the beginning 
of his speeches,) and at others, his tones would be almost dis- 
agreeable : yet it was by means of his tones, and the happy 
modulation of his voice, that his speaking had perhaps its 
greatest effect. 

* This hit of Mr. Lee was thought a very happy one at the time. I 
have heard it mentioned by several others who were members of the house, 
particularly by Judge Tyler. This gentleman represented it as having occurred 
after a division and count of the house, and just as the members were about 
to return to their seats. A member who was in the majority, and who was 
not very remarkable either for intellect or urbanity, said, with a coarse laugh, 
to Mr. Lee, " Well, you see you have lost it." Upon which the latter, look- 
ing at him with rather a contemptuous and sneering countenance, answered, 
" Yes, I have lost it, but if votes were weighed, instead of being counted, I 
should not have lost it." 

Was this thought original in Mr. Lee, or had he unconsciously borrowed it 
from the younger Pliny 1 " Sed hoc pluribus [levius] visum est. Niime- 
rantur enim sententiae, non ponderantur : nee aliud in publico consil'o potest 
fieri, in quo nihil est tarn insequale, quam sequalitas ipsa; nan cum sit impar 
prudentia, par omnium jus est." — Plin. Epist. Lib. IL Epist. XIL 

"Yet these reflections, it seems, made no impression upon the majority. 
Votes go by number, not weight ; nor can it be otherwise in assemblies of 
this kind, where nothing is more unequal than that equality which pre- 
varls in them ; for though every member has the same weight of suffrage, everv 
member has not the same strength of judgment." — Melmoth's Translation of 
Pliny. London, 1748. 



180 wirt's life o^ 

" He had a happy articulatron — a clear, bold, strong voice — 
and every syllable was distinctly uttered. He was always very 
unassuming, and very respectful toward his adversaries ; the 
consequence was, that no feeling of disgust or animosity was 
arrayed against him. He was great at a reply, and greater in 
proportion to the pressure which was bearing upon him ; and 
it seemed to me, from the frequent opportunities of observa- 
tion afforded me during the period of which I have spoken, that 
the resources of his mind and of his eloquence were equal to 
any drafts which could possibly be made upon them." 

This inequality in the speeches of Mr. Henry, was imputed 
by some of his observers to art. He always spoke, they say, 
for victory, and wishing to carry every one with him, adapted 
the different parts of his discourse to their different capacities. 
A critic of a higher order would sometimes think him trifling, 
when in truth he was making a most powerful impression on 
the weaker members of the house. By these means it is said, 
he contrived to worm his way through the whole body, and to 
insinuate his influence into every mind. When he hobbled, it 
was like the bird that thus artfully seeks to decoy away the 
foot of the intruder from the precious deposite of her brood ; and 
at the moment when it would be thought that his strength was 
almost exhausted, he would spring magnificently from the 
earth, and tower above the clouds. 

He knew all the local interests and prejudices of every quar- 
ter of the state, and of every county in it; and whether these 
prejudices were rational or irrational, it is said that he would 
appeal to them without hesitation, and, whenever he found it 
necessary, enlist them in his cause. His address on these oc- 
casions has been highly admired even by those who have cen- 
sured the course as deficient in dignity and candour. It was 
executed with so much delicacy and adroitness, and covered 
under a countenance of such apostolic solemnity, that the 
persons on whom he was operating were unconscious of the 
design. 

Winding his way thus artfully through the house, from coun- 
ty to county, from prejudice to prejudice, with the power of mov- 
ing them, when he pleased, from tears to laughter, from laughter 
to tears, of astonishing their imaginations, and overwhelming 
their judgments and hearts, it is easy to conceive how irresist- 
ible he must have been. When with these prodigious facultieg 
the reader connects his engaging deportment out of the house 
— the uncommon kindness and gentleness of his nature — the 
simplicity, frankness, and amenity of his manners — the inno- 
cent playfulness and instruction of his conversation — the in- 
tegrity of his life — and the high sense of the services which he 



PATRICK HENRY. 181 

had rendered to the cause of liberty and his country — he will 
readily perceive, that the opinions and wishes of such a man 
would be, of themselves, almost decisive of any question. 

The artifice of resorting to erroneous local prejudices, in a 
legislative debate, is certainly not to be commended. Truth 
stands in need of no such aids. It must be admitted that there 
is more purity as well as dignity, in supporting a sound meas- 
ure by sound arguments only : and we must be prepared to 
become Jesuits, before we can justify a resort to wrong means 
to promote even a right end. In excuse of Mr. Henry, we 
have nothing to urge except immemorial and almost universal 
usage ; and it is moreover highly probable, that many of the 
instances, in which he was accused of resorting improperly to 
local prejudices, were cases in which the questions were, from 
their nature, to be decided in a great measures by local inter- 
ests. Of this description is the following one, now furnished, 
at my request, in writing, by Judge Archibald Stuart, from 
whom I had the pleasure to hear it in conversation several 
years ago : — 

" At your request, I attempt a narrative of the extraordinary 
effects of Mr. Henry's eloquence in the Virginia legislature, 
about the year seventeen hundred and eighty-four, when I was 
present as a member of that body. 

*'The finances of the country had been much deranged during 
the war, and public credit was at a low ebb; a party in the leg- 
islature thought it then high time to place the character and 
credit of the state on a more respectable footing, by laying tax- 
es commensurate with all the public demands. With this view, 
a bill had been brought into the house, and referred to a com- 
mittee of the whole ; in support of which the then speaker, (Mr. 
Tyler,) Henry Tazewell, Mann Page, William Ronald, and 
many other members of great respectability, (including, to the 
best of my recollection, Richard H. Lee, and, perhaps, Mr. 
Madison,) took an active part. Mr. Henry, on the other hand, 
was of opinion that this was a premature attempt; that policy 
required that the people should have some repose after the fa- 
tigues and privations to which they had been subjected, during 
a long and arduous struggle for independence. 

"The advocates of the bill, in committee of the whole house, 
used their utmost efforts, and were successful in conforming it 
to their views, by such a majority (say thirty) as seemed to en- 
sure its passage. When the committee rose, the bill was in- 
stantly reported to the house ; when Mr. Henry, who had been 
excited and roused by his recent defeat, came forward again in 
all the majesty of his power. For some time after he com- 

16 



185J wirt's life of 

menced speaking, the countenances of his opponents indicated 
no apprehension of danger to their cause. 

"The feehngs of Mr. Tyler, which were sometimes warm, 
could not on that occasion be concealed, even in the chair. His 
countenance was forbidding, even repulsive, and his face turned 
from the speaker. Mr. Tazewell was reading a pamphlet : and 
Mr. Page was more than usually grave. After some time, 
however, it was discovered that Mr. Tyler's countenance grad- 
ually began to relax ; he would occasionally look at Mr. Henry ; 
sometimes smile ; his attention by degrees became more fixed ; 
at length it became completely so : — he next appeared to be 
in good humour ; he leaned toward Mr. Henry — appeared 
charmed and delighted, and finally lost in wonder and amaze- 
ment. The progress of these feelings was legible in his counte- 
nance. 

"Mr. Henry drew a most affecting picture of the state of 
poverty and suffering in which the people of the upper counties 
had been left by the war. His delineation of their wants 
and wretchedness was so minute, so full of feeling, and withal 
so true, that he could scarcely fail to enlist on his side every 
sympathetic mind. He contrasted the severe toil by which they 
had 10 gain their daily subsistence, with the facilities enjoyed 
by the people of the lower counties. The latter, he said, re- 
siding on the salt rivers and creeks, could draw their supplies 
at pleasure, from the waters that flowed by their doors ; and 
then he presented such a ludicrous image of the members who 
had advocated the bill, (the most of whom were from the lower 
counties,) peeping and peering along the shores of the creeks, 
to pick up their mess of crabs, or addling off to the oyster- 
rocks, to rake for their daily bread, * as filled the house with a 
roar of merriment. Mr. Tazewell laid down his pamphlet, and 
shook his sides with laughter ; even the gravity of Mr. Page 
was affected : a corresponding change of countenance prevailed 
through the ranks of the advocates of the bill, and you might 
discover that they had surrendered their cause. In this they 
were not disappointed ; for on a division, Mr. Henry had a 
majority of upward of thirty against the bill." 

ff this be a fair specimen of the cases (as probably it is) in 
which Mr. Henry was accused of appealing improperly to local 
prejudices, the censure seems undeserved. It is obvious that 
the consideration urged by him, on this occasion, belonged 
properly to the subject, and that the appeal to local circum- 
stances was fairly made. Candour will justify us in looking, 

* At that day, (and perhaps still,) the poorer people on the salt creeks, 
lived almost exclusively on fish ; passing whole days, and sometimes weeks, 
without seeing a grain of bread. 



PATRICK HENRY. fg^ 

with great distrust, to the censures cast on this extraordinary 
man, by rivals whom he had obscured. 

On the seventeenth of November, seventeen hundred and 
eighty-four, Mr. Henry was again elected governor of Virginia, 
to commence his ser\dce from the thirtieth day of the same 
month. The communication made by him to the first legisla- 
ture which met after his election, is inserted in the Appendix ; 
it is given at large, as a specimen of Mr. Henry's style in more 
extended compositions than have yet been submitted to the 
reader, and for the further purpose of showing, that the objects 
with which a governor of Virginia, acting within the pale of the 
constitution, is conversant in time of peace, are not such as to 
shed much lustre on his character, or to solicit very powerfully 
the attention of his biographer. (See Appendix, Note B.) 

In examining the public archives of this date, there is a cir- 
cumstance whose frequent and indeed constant recurrence, 
presses itself most painfully on the attention : I mean the re- 
signation of state officers, on the plea of a necessity to resort 
to some more effectual means of subsistence. It is not generally 
known, that the councils of Virginia were, during the period 
of which we are now speaking, enlightened and adorned by 
some of the brightest of her sons ; much less is it known that 
they were driven from those councils, by that wretched policy 
which has always regulated the salaries of officers in Virginia. 
The letters of resignation, during the years seventeen hundred 
and eighty-four, five, and six, which now stand on the public 
files, afford the best comment on this policy. 

Virginia lost during those years, the services of such men as 
have rarely existed in this or any other country ; and such as 
she can never hope to see again in her councils, until the sys- 
tem of penury shall yield to that of liberality. At the close of 
the war, indeed, there was some apology for this penury ; the 
country was wretchedly poor and in debt. But this cause 
has long since ceased, and with it also should cease the 
affect. 

Virginia is now rich, and may fill her offices with the flower of 
her sons ; but can it be expected that men who wish to live free 
from debt, and to leave their families independent at their deaths 
will relinquish the pursuits by which they are able to affect 
these objects, and enter upon a service full of care, responsi- 
bility, and anxiety; a service whose certain fruits (if it be their 
only dependance) must be a life of pecuniary embarrassment ; 
and (what is still worse) their wives and children, after their 
deaths, must be cast on the charity of a cold and unfeeling 
world. Ought such a sacrifice to be expected ? and yet must 
it not be the inevitable consequence of an exclusive dependance 



184 WIRT*S LIFE OF 

on the salary of any office in Virginia, which requires talents 
of the highest order? 

How affecting is that spectacle which we have seen of a pub- 
lic officer, who, having worn out the prime and vigour of life in 
the service of his country, instead of being enabled to retire, in 
old age, to the repose and peace which he so justly deserved, is 
compelled to toil on for subsistence, though trembling, perhaps, 
under the weight of eighty winters, oppressed by debt, harassed 
by his creditors, with the certainty before him of dying poor 
and involved; and leaving his posterity, if he have any, on the 
parish ! How forcibly does it remind us of that pathetic ex- 
clamation of Wolsey : — 

** Cromwell, Cromwell, 
Had I but served my God, with half the zeal 
I served my king, he would not, in mine age 
Have left me naked to my enemies!" 

Is it in reference to the warm and generous state of Virginia, 
that these reflections can be made, and made too with truth and 
justice ! 

These remarks are not foreign to our story : in the fall of 
seventeen hundred and eighty-six, while yet a year remained 
of his constitutional term, Mr. Henry was under the necessity 
of retiring from the office of governor. There never was a 
man whose style of living was more perfectly unostentatious, 
temperate and simple ; yet the salary had been inadequate to 
the support of his family ; and, at the end of two years, he 
found himself involved in debts, which for the moment, he saw 
no hope of paying, but by the sacrifice of a part of his estate. 
Let it be remembered, that this occurred in the year seventeen 
hundred and eighty-six ; and let it be further remembered, that 
the salary was then very nearly what it still remains ! 

In consequence of Mr. Henry's declining a re-election, the 
legislature proceeded to appoint his successor ; and then, on 
the succeeding twenty-fifth of November, the house of dele- 
gates came to the following resolution : — 

" Resolved, unanimously^ That a committee be appointed to 
wait on his excellency the governor, and present him the thanks 
of this house, for his wise, prudent, and upright administration, 
during his last appointment of chief magistrate of this com- 
monwealth, assuring him that they retain a perfect sense of his 
abilities, in the discharge of the duties of that high and impor- 
tant office, and wish him all domestic happiness, on his return 
to private life." 

To this resolution, Mr. Corbin, one of the committee, re- 
ported the following answer from Mr. Henry : — 



PATRICi: HENRY. 185 

"Gentlemen: The house of delegates have done me dis- 
tinguished honour, by the resolution they have been pleased to 
communicate to me through you. I am happy to find my en- 
deavours to discharge the duties of my station, have met with 
their favourable acceptance. 

" The approbation of my country is the highest reward to 
which my mind is capable of aspiring, and I shall return to 
private life, highly gratified in the recollection of this instance 
of regard shown me by the house ; having only to regret that 
my abilities to serve my country have come so short of my 
wishes. 

" At the same time that I make my best acknowledgments to 
the house for their goodness, I beg leave to express my par- 
ticular obligations to you, gentlemen, for the polite manner in 
which this communication is made to me." 

On the fourth of December, in the same year, Mr. Henry 
was appointed by the legislature, one of seven deputies from 
this commonwealth to meet a convention proposed to be held 
in Philadelphia, on the following May, for the purpose of re- 
vising the federal constitution. On this list of deputies, his 
name stands next to that of him, who stood of right before all 
others in America ; the order of appointment as exhibited by 
the journals being as follows : George Washington, Patrick 
Henry, Edmund Randolph, John Blair, James Madison, George 
Mason, and George Wythe. 

The same cause, however, which had constrained Mr. Henry's 
retirement from the executive chair of state, disabled him now 
from obeying this honourable call of his country. On his re- 
signing the government, he retired to Prince Edward county, 
and endeavoured to cast about for the means of extricating him- 
self from his debts. At the age of fifty years, worn down by- 
more than twenty years of arduous service in the cause of his 
country, eighteen of which had been occupied by the toils and 
tempests of the revolution, it was natural for him to wish for 
rest, and to seek some secure and placid port in which he 
might repose himself from the fatigues of the storm. This, 
however, was denied him; and after having devoted the bloom 
of youth and the maturity of manhood to the good of his country, 
he had now in his old age to provide for his family. 

" He had never,^^ says a correspondent, (Judge Winston,) 
^^heen in easy circumstances ; and soon after his removal to 
Prince Edward county, conversing with his usual frankness 
with one of his neighbours, he expressed his anxiety under the 
debts which he was not able to pay; the reply was to this 
effect : * Go back to the bar ; your tongue will soon pay your 

16* 



186 wirt's life of 

debts. If you will promise t6 go, I will give you a retaining 
fee on the spot.' 

" This blunt advice determined him to return to the practice 
of the law ; which he did in the beginning of seventeen hun- 
dred and eighty-eight ; and during six years he attended reg- 
ularly the district courts of Prince Edward and New London.'* 

Direful must have been the necessity which drove a man of 
Mr. Henry's disposition and habits, at his time of life, and 
tempest-beaten as he was, to resume the practice of such a pro 
fession as the law. He would not, however, undertake the 
technical duties of the profession; his engagements were con- 
lined to the argument of the cause ; and his clients had of 
course, to employ other counsel, to conduct the pleadings, and 
ripen their cases for hearing. Hence his practice was restricted 
to difficult and important cases ; but his great reputation kept 
him constantly engaged ; he was frequently called to distant 
courts ; the light of his eloquence shone in every quarter of the 
state, and thousands of tongues were everywhere employed in 
repeating the fine effusions of his genius. 

The federal constitution, the fruit of the convention at Phila- 
delphia, had now come forth, and produced an agitation which 
had not been felt since the return of peace. The friends and 
the enemies to its adoption were equally zealous and active in 
their exertions to promote their respective wishes ; the presses 
throughout the continent teemed with essays on the subject ; 
and the rostrum, the pulpit, the field, and the forest, rung with 
declamations and discussions of the most animated character. 
Every assemblage of people, for whatsoever purpose met, either 
for court or church, muster or barbecue, presented an arena for 
the political combatants; and in some quarters of the union, 
such was the public anxiety of the occasion, that gentlemen in 
the habit of public speaking, converted themselves into a sort 
of itinerant preachers, going from county to county, and from 
state to state, collecting the people by distant appointments, and 
challenging all adversaries to meet and dispute with them the 
propriety of the adoption of the federal constitution. 

All who sought to distinguish themselves by public speaking, 
all candidates for popular favour, and especially the junior mem^ 
bers of the bar, flocked to these meetings from the remotest dis- 
tances, and entered the lists with all the ardour, and gallantry 
of the knights of former times at their tilts and tournaments. 
Never was there a theme more fruitful of discussion, and never 
was there one more amply or ably discussed. 

Of the convention which was to decide the fate of this instru- 
ment in Virginia, Mr. Henry was chosen a member for the county 
of Prince Edward. Although the constitution had come forth 



PATRICK HENRY. 187 

with the sanction of the revered name of Washington, and car- 
ried with it all the weight of popularity which that name could 
not fail to attach to any proposition, it had not the good fortune 
to be approved by Mr. Henry. He was (to use his own expres- 
sion) "most awfully alarmed" at the idea of its adoption ; for he 
considered it as threatening the liberties of his country; and he 
determined, therefore, to buckle on once more the armour which 
he had hung up in the temple of peace, and try the fortune of 
this, the last of his political fields. 



CHAPTER VHL 

Convention at Richmond on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution — Un- 
common Array of Men of Talent in the Convention — Mr. Henry's Reply to 
Gen. Lee — To Mr. Pendleton — Synopsis of the chief Objections to the 
Constitution — Mr. Henry's Reply to Mr. Madison and Mr. Corbin — Singular 
Incident connected with Mr. Henry's closing Address — Session of the As- 
sembly in October — Mr. Henry nominates Richard H. Lee and Mr. Grayson 
as Senators in Opposition to Mr. Madison — His Resolutions in the Assembly 
on the Subject of the Constitution — Anecdote of his Retaliation upon a young 
Member — Draft of Letters to Governor Clinton and to several States. 

The convention met in Richmond, on the second of June, 
seventeen hundred and eighty-eight, and exhibited such an array 
of variegated talents, as had never been collected before within 
the limits of the state, and such a one as it may well be feared 
we shall never see again. A few of the most eminent of these 
statesmen are still alive; of whom, therefore, delicacy forbids 
us to speak as they deserve. Their powers, however, and the 
peculiar characters of their intellectual excellence, are so well 
known that their names will be sufhcient to speak their respect- 
ive eulogies. 

We may mention, therefore, Mr. Madison, the late president 
of the United States; Mr. Marshall, the chief-justice; and Mr. 
Monroe, now the president. What will the reader think of a 
body, in which men like these were only among their equals! 
Yet such is the fact; for there were those sages of other days, 
Pendleton and Wythe; there was seen displayed the Spartan 
vigour and compactness of George Nichols; and there shone 
the radiant genius and sensibility of Grayson; the Roman en- 
ergy and the Attic wit of George Mason was there; and there, 
also, the classic taste and harmony of Edmund Randolph ; "the 
splendid conflagration" of the high-minded Innis; and the 
matchless eloquence of the immortal Henry ! 



188 wirt's life of 

The debates and proceedirrgs of this Convention, by Mr. Da- 
vid Robertson, of Petersburgh, have passed through two editions; 
yet it is believed that their circulation has been principally con- 
fined to Virginia; and even in this state, from the rapid progress 
of our population, that book is supposed to be in, comparatively, 
few hands. Hence it has been thought proper to give a short 
sketch of Mr. Henry's course in this body. It ought to be pre- 
mised, however, that the published debates have been said, by 
those who attended the convention, to present but an imperfect 
view of the discussion of that body. In relation to Mr. Henry, 
they are confessedly imperfect; the reporter having sometimes 
dropped him in those passages in which the reader would be 
most anxious to follow him. 

From the skill and ability of the reporter, there can be no 
doubt that the substance of the debates, as well as their general 
course, are accurately preserved. The work is, therefore, a 
valuable repository of the arguments by which the constitution 
was opposed on one hand, and supported on the other; but it 
must have been utterly impossible for a man who possesses the 
sensibility and high relish for eloquence which distinguish the 
reporter, not to have been so far transported by the excursions 
of Mr. Henry's genius, as sometimes, unconsciously, to have 
laid down his pen. , 

It was not until the fourth, that the preliminary arrangements 
for the discussion.were settled. Mr. Pendleton had been unan- 
imously elected the president of the convention ; but it having 
been determined that the subject should be debated in committee 
of the whole, the house on that day resolved itself into commit- 
tee, and the venerable Mr. Wythe was called to the chair. In 
conformity with the order which had been taken, to discuss the 
constitution, clause by clause, the clerk now read the preamble, 
and the two first sections ; and the debate was opened by Mr. 
George Nicholas. 

He confined himself strictly to the sections under considera- 
tion, and maintained their policy with great cogency of argu- 
ment. Mr. Henry rose next, and soon demonstrated that his 
excursions were not to be restrained by the rigour of rules. 
Instead of proceeding to answer Mr. Nicholas, he commenced 
by sounding an alarm calculated to produce a most powerful 
impression. The effect, however, will be entirely lost upon the 
reader, unless he shall associate with the speech which I am 
about to lay before him, that awful solemnity and look of fear- 
ful portent, by which Mr. Henry could imply even more than 
he expressed; and that slow, distinct, emphatic enunciation, by 
which he never failed to move the souls of his hearers. 

"Mr. Chairman: The public mind, as well as my own, is 



PATRICK HENRY^ 189 

extremely uneasy at the proposed change of government. Give 
me leave to form one of the number of those who wish to be 
thoroughly acquainted with the reasons of this perilous and un- 
easy situation — and why we are brought hither to decide on this 
great national question. I consider myself as the servant of 
the people of this commonwealth — as a sentinel over their rights, 
liberty, and happiness. I represent their feelings when I say, 
that they are exceedingly uneasy, being brought from that state 
of full security which they enjoyed, to the present delusive ap- 
pearance of things. 

"A year ago, the minds of our citizens were at perfect repose. 
Before the meeting of the late federal convention at Philadel- 
phia, a general peace and a universal tranquillity prevailed in 
this country — but since that period, they are exceedingly uneasy 
and disquieted. When I wished for an appointment to this 
convention, my mind was extremely agitated for the situation 
of public affairs. I conceive the republic to be in extreme 
danger. 

"If our situation be thus uneasy, whence has arisen this fear- 
ful jeopardy? It arises from this fatal system — it arises from a 
proposal to change our government — a proposal that goes to the 
utter annihilation of the most solemn engagements of the states 
— a proposal of establishing nine states into confederacy, to the 
eventual exclusion of four states. It goes to the annihilation of 
those solemn treaties we have formed with foreign nations. The 
present circumstances of France — the good offices rendered us 
by that kingdom, require our most faithful and most punctual 
adherence to our treaty with her. 

"We are in alliance with the Spaniards, the Dutch, the Prus- 
sians : those treaties bound us as thirteen states, confederated 
together. Yet here is a proposal to sever that confederacy. Is 
it possible that we shall abandon all our treaties and national 
engagements? And for what? I expected to have heard the 
reasons of an event, so unexpected to my mind and many others. 
Was our civil polity or public justice endangered or sapped? 
Was the real existence of the country threatened — or was this 
preceded by a mournful progression of events? 

"This proposal of altering our federal government is of a 
most alarming nature. Make the best of this new government 
— say it is composed by anything but inspiration — you ought to 
be extremely cautious, watchful, jealous of your liberty; for in- 
stead of securing our rights, you may lose them for ever. If a 
wrong step be now made, the republic may be lost for ever. If 
this new government will not come up to the expectation of the 
people, and they should be disappointed, their liberty will be 
lost, and tyranny must and will arise. 



IW^ WIRT*S LIFE OF 

"I repeat it again, and I beg gentlemen to consider, that a 
wrong step made now, will plunge us into misery, and our re- 
public will be lost. It will be necessary for this convention to 
have a faithful historical detail of the facts that preceded the 
session of the federal convention, and the reason that actuated 
its members in proposing an entire alteration of government, 
and to demonstrate the dangers that awaited us: if they were of 
such awful magnitude, as to warrant a proposal so extremely 
perilous as this, I must assert, that this convention has an abso- 
lute right to a thorough discovery of every circumstance rela- 
tive to this great event. 

"And here I would make this inquiry of those worthy char- 
acters who composed a part of the late federal convention. I 
am sure they were fully impressed with the necessity of form- 
ing a great consolidated government, instead of a confederation. 
That this is a consolidated government is demonstrably clear; 
and the danger of such a government is to my mind very stri- 
king. I have the highest veneration for those gentlemen: but. 
sir, give me leave to demand, what right had they to say, we, 
the people ? 

"My political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious solicitude 
for the public welfare, leads me to ask, who authorized them to 
speak the language of, we, the people, instead of, we, the states? 
States are the characteristics, and the soul of a confederation. 
If the states be not the agents of this compact, it must be one 
great, consolidated, national government of the people of all 
the states. I have the highest respect for those gentlemen who 
formed the convention; and were some of them not here, I 
would express some testimonial of esteem for them. 

"America had, on a former occasion, put the utmost confi- 
dence in them; a confidence which was well-placed; and I am 
sure, sir, I would give up anything to them ; I would cheerfully 
confide in them as my representatives. But, sir, on this great 
occasion, I would demand the cause of their conduct. Even 
from that illustrious man, who saved us by his valour, I would 
have a reason for his conduct — that liberty which he has given 
lis by his valour, tells me to ask this reason — and sure I am, 
were he here, he would give us that reason: but there are other 
gentlemen here who can give us this information. The people 
gave them no power to use their name. That they exceeded 
their power is perfectly clear. 

"It is not mere curiosity that actuates me — I wish to hear the 
real, actual, existing danger, which should lead us to take those 
steps so dangerous in my conception. Disorders have arisen in 
other parts of America; but here, sir, no dangers, no insurrec- 
tion, or tumult, has happened — everything has been calm and 



PATRICK HENRY. 191 

tranquil. But, notwithstanding this, we are wandering on the 
great ocean of human affairs. I sec no landmark to guide us. 
We are running wc knoio not whither. 

"Difference in opinion has gone to a degree of inflammatory- 
resentment, in different parts of the country, which has been 
occasioned by this perilous innovation. The federal convention 
ought to have amended the old system — for this purpose they 
were solely delegated: the object of their mission extended to 
no other consideration. You must therefore forgive the solicit- 
ation of one unworthy member, to know what danger could 
have arisen under the present confederation, and what are the 
causes of this proposal to change our government?" 

This inquiry was answered by an eloquent speech from Mr. 
Randolph ; and the debate passed into other hands ; until on the 
next day. General Lee, in reference to Mr. Henry's opening 
speech, addressed the chair, as follows: — 

"Mr. Chairman: I feel every power of my mind moved by 
the language of the honourable gentleman, yesterday. The 
eclat and brilliancy which have distinguished that gentleman, 
the honours with which he has been dignified, and the brilliant 
talents which he has so often displayed, have attracted my re> 
spect and attention. On so important an occasion, and before so 
respectable a body, I expected a new display of his powers of 
oratory: but, instead of proceeding to investigate the merits of 
the nevy plan of government, the worthy character informed us 
of horrors which he felt, of apprehensions in his mind, which 
made him tremblingly fearful of the fate of the commonioealth. 

*'Mr. Chairman : Was it proper to appeal to the fear of this 
house ? The question before us belongs to the judgment of this 
house; I trust he is come to judge and not to alarm. I trust 
that he, and every other gentleman in this house, comes with a 
firm resolution, coolly and calmly to examine, and fairly and 
impartially to determine." 

In the further progress of his speech. General Lee again said, 
rather tauntingly, of Mr. Henry — "The gentleman sat down as 
he began, leaving us to ruminate on the horrors with which he 
opened." 

Mr. Henry, rising immediately after these sarcastic remarks, 
gave a striking specimen of that dignified self-command, and 
that strict and uniform decorum^ by which he was so pre-emi- 
nently distinguished in debate. Far from retorting the sarcasms 
of his adversary, he seemed to have heard nothing but the com- 
pliments with which they stood connected, and rising slowly 
from his seat, with a countenance expressive of unaffected hu- 
mility, he began with the following modest and disqualifying 
exordium : — 



192 wirt's life of 

"Mr. Chairman: I am much obliged to the very worthy- 
gentleman for his encomium. I wish I was possessed of talents, 
or possessed of anything, that might enable me to elucidate this 
great subject. I own, sir, I am net free from suspicion. I am 
apt to entertain doubts. I rose, on yesterday, not to enter upon 
the discussion, but merely to ask a question which had arisen in 
my own mind. When I asked that question, I thought the 
meaning of my interrogation was obvious. The fate of America 
may depend on this question. 

"Have they said, we, the states? Have they made a propo- 
sal of a compact between states ? If they had, this would be a 
confederation; it is, otherwise, most clearly, a consolidated 
government. The whole question turns, sir, on that poor little 
thing, the expression, we, the people, instead of, the states of 
America." 

He then proceeded to set forth, in terrible array, his various 
objections to the constitution; not confining himself to the 
clauses under debate, but ranging through the whole instrument, 
and passing from objection to objection, as they followed each 
other in his mind. This departure from the rule of the house, 
although at first view censurable, was insisted upon by himself 
and his colleagues, as being indispensable to a just examination 
of the particular clause under consideration; because the policy 
or impolicy of any provision did not always depend upon itself 
alone, but on other provisions with which it stood connected, 
and, indeed, upon the whole system of powers and checks thai 
were associated with it in the same instrument, and thus formed 
only parts of one entire whole. 

The truth of this position, in relation to some of the provi- 
sions, could not be justly denied; and a departure once made 
from the rigour of the rule, the debate became at large, on ev- 
ery part of the constitution; the disputants at every stage look- 
ing forward and backward throughout the whole instrument, 
without any control other than their own discretion. Thus 
freed from restraints, under which his genius was at all times 
impatient, uncoupled and let loose to range the whole field at 
pleasure, Mr. Henry seemed to have recovered, and to luxuriate 
in all the powers of his youth. He had, indeed, occasion for 
them all; for while he was supported by only three effective 
auxiliaries, opposed to him stood a phalanx, most formidable 
both for talents and weight of character; and several of whom 
it might be said, with truth, that each was "ztj himself a host ;^^ 
for at the head of the opposing ranks stood Mr. Pendleton, Mr. 
Wythe, Mr. Madison, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Nicholas, Mr. Ran- 
dolph, Mr. Innis, Mr. Henry Lee, and Mr. Corbin. Fearful 
odds! and such as called upon him for the most strenuous ex* 
ertion of all his faculties. 



PATRICK HENRY. 193 

Nor did he sink below the occasion. For twenty days, dur- 
ing which this great discussion continued without intermission, 
his efforts were sustained, not only with undiminished strength, 
but with powers which seemed to gather new force from every 
exertion. All the faculties useful for debate were found united 
in him, with a degree of perfection, in which they are rarely 
seen to exist, even separately, in different individuals: irony, 
ridicule, the purest wit, the most comic humour, exclamations 
that made the soul start, the most affecting pathos, and the most 
sublime apostrophes, lent their aid to enforce his reasoning, and 
to put to flight the arguments of his adversaries. 

The objection that the constitution substituted a consolidated 
in lieu of a confederated government, and that this new consol- 
idated government threatened the total annihilation of the state 
sovereignties, was pressed by him with most masterly power: 
he said there was no necessity for a change of government so 
entire and fundamental — and no inducement to it, unless it was 
to be found in this splendid government, which we were told 
was to make us a great and mighty people, 

"We have no detail," said he, "of those great considerations, 
which, in my opinion, ought to have abounded, before we should 
recur to a government of this kind. Here is a revolution as 
radical as that which separated us from Great Britain. It is as 
radical, if in this transition our rights and privileges are endan- 
gered, and the sovereignty of the states be relinquished: and 
cannot we plainly see, that this is actually the case? The rights 
of conscience, trial by jury, liberty of the. press, all your immu- 
nities and franchises, all pretensions to human rights and privi- 
Jeges, are rendered insecure, if not lost, by this change so loudly 
talked of by some, and so inconsiderately by others. Is this 
tame relinquishment of rights worthy of freemen? Is it wor- 
thy of that manly fortitude that ought to characterize repub- 
licans? 

"It is said eight states have adopted this plan : I declare, that 
if twelve states and a half had adopted it, I would with manly 
firmness, and in spite of an erring world, reject it. You are 
not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you 
are to become a great and powerful people, but how your lib- 
erties can be secured ; for liberty ought to be the direct end of 
your government. Is it necessary for your liberty, that you 
should abandon those great rights by the adoption of this sys- 
tem? Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury, and the liberty 
of the press, necessary for your liberty ? Will the abandonment 
of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? 
Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings — give us that pre- 
cious jewelf and you may take everything else ! 

17 



194 WIRT S LIFE OF 

"But I am fearful I have lived long enough to become an old- 
fashioned fellow. Perhaps an invincible attachment to the dear- 
est rights of man, may, in these refilled, enlightened days, be 
deemed old-fashioned : if so, I am contented to be so: I say, the 
time has been, when every pulse of my heart beat for American 
liberty, and which, I believe, had a counterpart in the breast of 
every true American ; but suspicions have gone forth — suspicions 
of my integrity — publicly rej)ort€d that my professions are not 
real — twenty-three years ago was I supposed a traitor to my 
country: I was then said to be a bane of sedition because I sup- 
ported the rights of my country: I maybe thought suspicious, 
when I say our privileges and rights are in danger: but, sir, a 
number of the people of this country are weak enough to think 
these things are too true. 

*'I am happy to find, that the gentleman on the other side de- 
clares they are groundless : but, sir, suspicion is a virtue, as long 
as its object is the preservation of the public good, and as long 
as it stays within proper bounds: should it fall on me, I am con 
tented; conscious rectitude is a powerful consolation: I trust 
there are many who think my professions for the public good to 
be real. Let your suspicion look to both sides : there are many 
on the other side, who possibly may have been persuaded of the 
necessity of these measures, which I conceive to be dangerous 
to your liberty. 

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect 
every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing 
will preserve it but downright force : whenever you give up that 
force, you are inevitably ruined. I am answered by gentlemen, 
that though I might speak of terrors, yet the fact was, that we 
were surrounded by none of the dangers I apprehended. I con- 
ceive this new government to be one of those dangers: it has 
produced those horrors which distress many of our best citizens. 
"We are come hither to preserve the poor commonwealth of Vir- 
ginia, if it can be possibly done: something must be done to 
preserve your liberty and mine. 

"The confederation, this same despised government, merits, 
in my opinion, the highest encomium: it carried us through a 
long and dangerous war: it rendered us victorious in that bloody 
conflict with a powerful nation: it has secured us a territory 
greater than any European monarch possesses: and shall a gov- 
ernment which has been thus strong and vigorous, be accused 
of imbecility, and abandoned for want of energy? Consider 
what you are about to do, before you part with this government. 
Take longer time in reckoning things ; revolutions like this have 
happened in almost every country of Europe : similar examples 
are to be found in ancient Greece and ancient Rome : instances 



PATRICK HENRY. 195 

of the people losing their liberty by their own carelessness and 
the ambitioij of a few. 

"We are cautioned, by the honourable gentleman who pre- 
sides, against faction and turbulence: I acknowledge that licen- 
tiousness is dangerous, and that it ought to be provided against: 
I acknowledge, also, the new form of government may effectu- 
ally prevent it: yet there is another thing it will as effectually 
do — it will oppress and ruin the people. There are sufficient 
guards placed against faction and licentiousness : for when power 
is given to this government to suppress these, or for any other 
purpose, the language it assumes is clear, express, and unequiv- 
ocal: but when this constitution speaks of privileges, there is 
an ambiguity, sir, a fatal ambiguity, an ambiguity which is 
very astonishing!" 

The adoption of the instrument had been maintained upon 
the ground that it would increase our military strength, and en- 
able us to resist the lawless ambition of foreign princes: it had 
been urged, too, that if the convention should rise without adopt- 
ing the instrument, disunion and anarchy would be the certain 
consequences. In answer to these topics he said: — 

" Happy will you be, if you miss the fate of those nations, 
who, omitting to resist their oppressors, or negligently suffering 
their liberty to be wrested from them, have groaned under in- 
tolerable despotism ! Most of the human race are now in this 
deplorable condition. And those nations who have gone in 
search of grandeur, power, and splendour, have also fallen a 
sacrifice, and been the victims of their own folly. While they 
acquired those visionary blessings, they lost their freedom. 

"My great objection to this government is, that it does not 
leave us the means of defending our rights, or of waging war 
against tyrants. It is urged by some gentlemen, that this new 
plan will bring us an acquisition of strength, an army, and the 
militia of the states. This is an idea extremely ridiculous: 
gentlemen cannot be in earnest. Hiis acquisition will trample 
on your fallen liberty! Let my beloved Americans guard 
against that fatal lethargy that has pervaded the universe. Have 
we Ihe means of resisting disciplined armies, when our only de- 
fence, the militia, is put into the hands of congress? 

"The honourable gentleman said, that great danger would 
ensue, if the convention rose without adopting this system. I 
ask, where is that danger? I see none. Other gentlemen have 
told us within these walls, that the union is gone — or, that the 
union will be gone. Is not this trifling with the jurlgment of 
their fellow-citizens? Till they tell us the ground of their fears, 
I will consider them as imaginary. I rose to make inquiry 
where those dangers v/ere; they could make no answer: I be- 
lieve I never shall have that answer. 



196 wirt's life of 

"Is there a disposition in the people of this country to revolt 
against the dominion of laws? Has there been a single tumult 
in Virginia? Have not the people of Virginia, when labouring 
under the severest pressure of accumulated distresses, mani- 
fested the most cordial acquiescence in the execution of the 
laws? What could be more lawful than their unanimous acqui- 
escence under general distresses? Is there any revolution in 
Virginia? Whither is the spirit of America gone? Whither 
is the genius of America fled ? It was hut yesterday when our 
enemies marched in triumph through our country. Yet thu 
people of this country could not be appalled by their pompous 
armaments : they stopped their career, and victoriously cap- 
tured them! Where is the peril now compared to that? 

"Some minds are agitated by foreign alarms. Happily for 
us, there is no real danger from Europe: that country is engaged 
in more arduous business: from that quarter there is no cause 
of fear: you may sleep in safety for ever for them. Where is 
the danger? If sir, there was any, I would recur to the Amer- 
ican spirit to defend us — that spirit which has enabled us to sur- 
mount the greatest difficulties: to that illustrious spirit I address 
my most fervent prayer, to prevent our adopting a system de- 
structive to liberty. 

"Let not gentlemen be told that it is not safe to reject this 
government. Wherefore is it not safe? We are told there arc 
dangers; but those dangers are ideal; they cannot be demon- 
strated. To encourage us to adopt it, they tell us that there is 
a plain, easy way of getting amendments. When I come to 
contemplate this part, I suppose that I am mad, or, that my 
countrymen are so. The way to amendment is, in my concep- 
tion, shut. Let us consider this plain, easy way," 

He then proceeds to demonstrate, that as the constitution re- 
quired the concurrence of three fourths of the states to any 
amendment, it followed that six tenths of the people, in four ol 
the smallest states, (not containing collectively one-tenth part oi 
the population of the United States,) would have it in their 
power to defeat the most salutary amendments ; and then asks, 
"Is this, sir, an easy mode of securing the public liberty? It 
is, sir, a most fearful situation, when the most contemptible mi- 
nority can prevent the alteration of the most oppressive govern- 
ment: for it may, in many respects, prove to be such. Is this 
the spirit of republicanism? What, sir, is the genius of de- 
mocracy? Let me read that clause of the bill of rights of Vir- 
ginia, which relates to this : — 

"*Third Article. That government is, or ought to be, insti- 
tuted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the 
people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and 



PATRICK HENRY. 197 

forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing 
the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectu- 
ally secured against the danger of m-al-administration ; and that 
whenever any government shall be found inadequate, or con- 
trary to these purposes, a 7najority of the community hath an 
indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, 
or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive 
to the public weal.' 

"This, sir, is the language of democracy, that a majority of 
the community have a right to alter their government when 
found to be oppressive; but how different is the genius of your 
new constitution from this? How different from the sentiments 
of freemen, that a contemptible minority can prevent the good 
of the majority? If, then, gentlemen, standing on this ground, 
are come to that point, that they are willing to bind themselves 
and their posterity to be oppressed, / am amazed^ and inex- 
pressibly astonished ! 

"If this be the opinion of the majority, I must submit; but 
to me, sir, it appears perilous and destructive ; I cannot help 
thinking so; perhaps it maybe the result of my age; these may 
be feelings natural to a man of my years, when the American 
spirit has left him, and his mental powers, like the members of 
the body, are decayed. If, sir, amendments are left to the twen- 
tieth, or to the tenth part of the people of America, your liberty 
is gone for ever. 

"We have heard that there is a great deal of bribery practised 
in the house of commons in England; and that many of the 
members raised themselves to preferments by selling the rights 
of the people. But, sir, the tenth part of that body cannot con- 
tinue oppressions on the rest of the people. English liberty is, 
in this case, on a firmer foundation than American liberty. It 
will be easily contrived to procure the opposition of one tenth 
of the people to any alteration, however judicious." 

Mr. Pendleton had repelled the idea of danger from the 
«idoption of the constitution, on the ground of the facility 
with which the people could recall their delegated powers, and 
change their servants. "We will assemble in convention," 
said Mr. Pendleton, " wholly recall our delegated powers, or 
reform them so as to prevent such abuse, and punish our serv- 
ants." In reply to this, Mr. Henry said : — " The honourable 
gentleman who presides told us, that, to prevent abuses in our 
government, we will assemble in convention, recall our dele- 
gated powers, and punish our servants for abusing the trust re- 
posed in them. Oh, sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if 
to punish tyrants, it were only necessary to assemble the peo' 
pie ! Your arms wherewith you could defend yourselves, are 
17* 



198 wirt's life of 

gone ! and you have no longer an aristocratical, no longer a 
democratical spirit. Did you ever read of any revolution m 
any nation, brought about by the punishment of those in power j 
inflicted by those v^'ho had no fower at all ? You read of a 
riot act in a country which is called one of the freest in the 
world, where a few neighbours cannot assemble, without the 
risk of being shot by a hired soldiery, the engines of despo- 
tism. 

" We may see such an act in America. A standing army 
we shall have also, to execute the execrable commands of ty- 
ranny ; and how are you to punish them? Will you order 
them to he punished ? Who shall obey these orders ? Will 
your mace-bearer be a match for a disciplined regiment? In 
what situation are we to be ? The clause before you gives a 
power of direct taxation, unbounded and unlimited ; exclusive 
power of legislation, in all cases whatsoever, for ten miles 
square ; and over all places purchased for the erection of forts, 
magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, S^c. What resistance could 
he made ? The attempt would be madness. You will find all 
the strength of this country in the hands of your enemies ; 
those garrisons will naturally be the strongest places in the 
country. Your militia is given up to congress, also, in another 
part of this plan ; they will therefore act as they think proper ; 
all power will be in their own possession ; you cannot force 
them to receive their punishment." 

He continued to ridicule, very successfully, the alluring idea 
of the expected splendour of the new government, and the 
imaginany checks and balances which were said to exist in this 
constitution: "If we admit," said he, "this consolidated gov- 
ernment, it will be because we like a great splendid one. 
Some way or other we must be a great and mighty empire ; 
we must have an army, and a navy, and a number of things ! 
When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of 
America was different : liberty, sir, was then the primary ob- 
ject.^^ And again : " This constitution is said to have beauti- 
ful features ; when I come to examine these features, sir, they 
appear to me horribly frightful ! Among other deformities, it 
has an awful squinting ; it squints toivdrd monarchy ! And 
does not this raise indignation in the heart of every true Amer- 
ican ? 

" Your president may easily become king ; your senate is so 
imperfectly constructed, that your dearest rights may be sacri- 
ficed by what may be a small minority ; and a very small 
minority may continue, for ever, unchangeable, this govern- 
ment, although horridly defective ; where are your checks in 
this government ? Your strong hold will be in the hands of 



PATRICK HENRY. 109| 

your enemies ; it is on a supposition that your American gov- 
ernors shall be honest, that all the good qualities of this gov- 
ernment are founded ; but its defective and imperfect construc- 
tion puts it in their power to perpetrate the worst of mischiefs, 
should they be bad men ; and, sir, would not all the world, 
from the eastern to the western hemisphere, blame our dis- 
tracted folly in resting our rights upon the contingency of our 
rulers heing good or had ? 

" Show me that age and country, where the rights and lib- 
erties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their 
rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty? 
I say, that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, 
with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt. If your 
American chief be a man of ambition and abilities, how easy 
is it for him to render himself absolute ! The army is in his 
hands ; and if he be a man of address, it will be attached to 
him ; and it will be the subject of long meditation with him 
to seize the first auspicious moment to accomplish his design ; 
and, sir, will the American spirit, solely, relieve you when this 
happens ? 

*' I would rather infinitely, and I am sure most of this con- 
vention are of the same opinion, have a king, lords, and com- 
mons, than a government so replete with such insupporta- 
ble evils. If we make a king, we may prescribe the rules by 
which he shall rule his people, and interpose such checks as 
shall prevent him from infringing them : but the president in 
the field, at the head of his army, can prescribe the terms on 
which he shall reign master, so far that it will puzzle any 
American ever to get his neck from under the galling yoke. I 
cannot, with patience, think of this idea. If ever he violates 
the laws, one of two things will happen : he will come at the 
head of his army to carry everything before him ; or he will 
give bail, or do what Mr. Chief Justice will order him. If he 
be guilty, will not the recollection of his crimes teach him to 
make one bold push for the American throne ? Will not the 
immense diflference between being master of everything, and 
being ignominiously tried and punished, powerfully excite him 
to make this bold push ? 

" But, sir, where is the existing force to punish him ? Can 
he not, at the head of his army, beat down every opposition ? 
Away with your president ; we shall have a king : the army 
will salute him monarch ; your militia will leave you, and as- 
sist in making him king, and fight against you : and what have 
you to oppose this force 1 What will then become of you and 
your rights ? Will not absolute despotism ensue?" [Here Mr. 
Henry strongly and pathetically expatiated on the probability 



SSOO WIRT*S LIFE OF 

of the president's enslaving •America, and the horrid conse- 
quences that must result.] 

After the frank admission of the reporter, exhibited by the 
words contained in these brackets, that he had not attempted 
to follow Mr. Henry in this pathetic excursion, the reader will 
perceive, that it would be doing injustice to the memory of that 
eminent man, to multiply extracts from this book, as specimens 
of his eloquence. The stenographer who should be able to 
take down Mr. Henry's speeches, word for word, must have 
other qualities besides the perfect mastery of his art ; he must 
have the perfect mastery of himself, and be able, for the mo- 
ment, to play the mere automaton ; for without such self-com- 
mand, no man, who had a human heart in his bosom, could lis- 
ten to his startling exclamations, or horror-breathing tones, with- 
out keeping his eyes immovably riveted upon the speaker. His 
dominion over his hearers was so absolute, that it was idle to 
think of resisting him ; you would as soon think of resisting 
the lightning of heaven. 

The very tone of voice in which he would address the 
chairman, when he felt the inspiration of his genius ri- 
sing — "Mr. Chairman!" — and the awful pause which fol- 
lowed this call — fixed upon him at once every eye in the 
assembly : and then his own rapt countenance ! — those eyef 
which seemed to beam with light from another world, and un 
der whose fiery glance the crest of the proudest adversary fell ! 
his majestic attitudes, and that bold, strong, and varied action, 
which spoke forth, with so much power, the energies of his 
own great spirit, rendered his person a spectacle so sublime, 
and so awfully interesting, that to look in any other direction 
when the spell was upon him was not to be expected from any 
man who had eyes to see and ears to hear. Little cause have 
we, therefore, to wonder or to complain, that a gentleman of 
Mr. Robertson's lively admiration of genius, and of his quick 
and kindling sensibility, was sometimes bedimmed by his own 
tears, and at others torn from his task by those master-flights, 
which rushed like a mighty whirlwind from the earth, and car- 
ried up everything in their vortex. 

The chief objections taken to the constitution are reducible 
to the following heads : — 

I. That it was a consolidated, instead of a confederated gov- 
ernment : that in making it so, the delegates at Philadelphia 
had transcended the limits of their commission : changed fun- 
damentally the relations which the states had chosen to bear 
to each other : annihilated their respective sovereignties : de- 
stroyed the barriers which divided them : and converted the 
whole into one solid empire. To this leading objection, al- 



PATRICK HENRY. 301 

most all the rest had reference, and were urged principally 
with the view to illustrate and enforce it. 

2. The vast and alarming array of specific powers given to 
the general government, and the wide door opened for an un- 
limited extension of those powers, by the clause which author- 
ized congress to pass all laivs necessary to carry the given 
powers into effect. It was urged that this clause rendered the 
previous specification of powers an idle illusion ; since, by the 
force of construction arising from that clause, congress might 
easily do anything and everything it chose, under the pre- 
tence of giving effect to some specified power. 

3. The unlimited power of taxation of all kinds : the state? 
were no longer to be required, in their federative characters, 
to contribute their respective proportions toward the expenses 
and engagements of the general government: but congress 
were authorized to go directly to the pockets of the people, 
and to sweep from them en masse, from north to south, what- 
ever portion of the earnings of the industrious poor the rapa- 
city of the general government, or their schemes of ambitious 
grandeur, might suggest. 

It was contended, that such a power could not be exercised, 
without just complaint, over a country so extensive, and so 
diversified in its productions and the pursuits of its people: that 
it was impossible to select any subject of general taxation which 
would not operate unequally on the different sections of the 
union, produce discontent and heart-burnings among the people, 
and most probably terminate in open resistance to the laws: that 
the representatives in congress were too few to carry with them 
a knowledge of the wants and capacities of the people in the 
different parts of a large state, and that the representation could 
not be made full enough to attain that object, without becoming 
oppressively expensive to the country: that hence taxation 
ought to be left to the states themselves, whose representation 
was full, who best knew the habits and circumstances of their 
constituents, and on what subjects a tax could be most conve- 
niently laid. Mr. Henry said that he was willing to grant this 
power conditionally; that is, upon the failure of the states to 
comply with requisitions from congress : but that the absolute 
and unconditional grant of it, in the first instance, filled his mind 
with the most awful anticipations. 

It was resolved, he saw clearly, that we must be a great and 
splendid people; and that in order to be so, immense revenues 
must be raised from the people: the people were to be bowed 
down under the load of their taxes, direct and indirect; and a 
swarm of federal tax-gatherers were to cover this land, to blight 
every blade of grass, and every leaf of vegetation, and consume 



Its productions for the enrichment of themselves and their mas- 
ters: it was not contended, he supposed, but that the state leg- 
islature, also, might impose taxes for their own internal pur- 
poses: thus the people were to be doubly oppressed, and be- 
tween the state sheriffs and the federal sheriffs to be ground to 
dust: on this subject he drew such a vivid and affecting picture 
of these officers, entering in succession the cabin of the broken- 
hearted peasant, and the last one rifling the poor remains which 
the first had left as is said to have drawn tears from every eye. 

4. The power of raising armies and building navies, and still 
more emphatically, the control given to the general government 
over the militia of the states, was most strenuously opposed. 
The power thus given was a part of the means of that aggran- 
dizement which was obviously meditated, and there could be no 
doubt that it would be exercised: so that this republic, whose 
best policy was peace, was to be saddled with the expense of 
maintaining standing armies and navies, useless for any other 
purpose than to insult her citizens, to afford a pretext for in- 
creased taxes, and an augmented public debt, and finally to sub- 
vert the liberties of her people: her militia, too, her last remain- 
ing defence, was gone. 

"Congress," said Mr. Henry, "by the power of taxation — 
by that of raising an army and navy — and by their control over 
the militia — have the sword in the one hand, and the purse in 
the other. Shall we be safe without either? Congress have an 
unlimited power over both; they are entirely given up by us. 
Let him (Mr. Madison) candidly tell me where and when did 
freedom exist, when the sword and purse were given up from 
the people? Unless a miracle in human affairs shall interpose, 
no nation ever did or ever can retain its liberty, after the loss 
of the sword and the purse." 

The unlimited control over the militia was vehemently op- 
posed, on the ground, that the marching militia from distant 
states to quell insurrection, and repel invasions, and keeping the 
free yeomanry of the country under the lash of martial law, 
would, in the first instance, produce an effect extremely inimical 
to the peace and harmony of the union; and in the next, harass 
the agricultural body of the people so much, as to reconcile 
them, as a less evil, to that curse of nations, and bane of free- 
dom, a standing army: — and secondly, this power was opposed, 
on the ground that congress, under the boundless charter of 
constructive power which it possessed, might transfer to the 
president the power of calling forth the militia, and thus enable 
him to disarm all opposition to his schemes. 

5. The several clauses providing for the federal judiciary were 
objected to, on the ground of the clashing jurisdictions of the 



PATRICK HENRY. 

state and federal courts ; and secondly, because infinite power 
was given to congress to multiply inferior federal courts at plea- 
sure; a power which they would not fail to exercise, in order 
to swell the patronage of the president, to their own emolument; 
and thus enable him to reward their devotion to his views, by 
bestowing on them and their dependants those offices which they 
had themselves created. 

6. It was contended that the trial by jury was gone in civil 
cases, by that clause which gives to the supreme court appellate 
power over the law and the fact in every case ; and which there- 
by enabled that tribunal to annihilate both the verdict and judg- 
ment of the inferior courts: and that in criminal cases also, the 
trial by jury was worse than gone, because it was admitted, that 
the common law, which alone gave the challenge for favour, 
would not be in force as to the federal courts; and hence a jury 
might, in every instance, be packed to suit the purpose of the 
prosecution. 

7. The authority of the president to take the command of the 
armies of the United States, in person, was warmly resisted, on 
the ground, that if he were a military character, and a man of 
address, he might easily convert them into an engine for the 
worst of purposes. 

8. The cession of the whole treaty-making power to the pres- 
ident and senate, was considered as one of the most formidable 
features in the instrument, inasmuch as it put it in the power of 
the president and any ten senators, who might represent the five 
smallest states, to enter into the most ruinous foreign engage- 
ments, and even to cede away by treaty any portion of the ter- 
ritory of the larger states: it was insisted, that the lower house, 
who were the immediate representatives of the people, instead 
of being excluded as they were by the constitution from all par- 
ticipation in the treaty-making power, ought at least to be con- 
sulted, if not to have the principal agency in so interesting a 
national act. 

9. The immense patronage of the president was objected to : 
because it placed in his hands the means of corrupting the con- 
gress, the navy, and army, and of distributing, moreover, 
throughout the society, a band of retainers in the shape of 
judges, revenue officers, and tax-gatherers, which would render 
him irresistible in any scheme of ambition that he might medi- 
tate against the liberties of his country. 

10. The irresponsibility of the whole gang of federal officers 
(as they were called) was objected to : there was indeed, in some 
instances, a power of impeachment pretended to be given, 
but it was mere sham and mockery; since, instead of being 
tried by a tribunal, zealous and interested to bring them to jus- 



tB04 wirt's life of 

tice, they were to try each ofher for offences, in which, proba 
bly, they were all mutually implicated. 

11. It was insisted, that if we must adopt a constitution ce- 
ding away such vast powers, express and implied, and so fraught 
with danger to the liberties of the people, it ought at least to be 
guarded by a bill of rights ; that in all free governments, and in 
the estimation of all men attached to liberty, there were certain 
rights unalienable — imprescriptible — and of so sacred a char- 
acter, that they could not be guarded with too much caution: 
among these were the liberty of speech and of the press — what 
security had we, that even these sacred privileges would not be 
invaded? Congress might think it necessary, in order to carry 
into effect the given powers, to silence the clamours and cen- 
sures of the people; and, if they meditated views of lawless 
ambition, they certainly will so think : what then would become 
of the liberty of speech and of the press? 

Several objections of a minor character were urged, such as : — 

1. That the ambiguity with which the direction for publishing 
the proceedings of congress was expressed, ("from time to 
time,") put it in their power to keep the people in utter igno- 
i-ance of their proceedings ; and thus to seize the public liberties 
*'by ambuscade." 

2. That the ninth section of the first article, professing to set 
out restrictions upon the power of congress, gave them, by ir- 
resistible implication, the sovereign power over all subjects not 
excepted, and thus enlarged their constructive powers, ad in- 
finitum. 

3. That congress had the power of involving the southern 
states in all the horrors which would result from a total eman- 
cipation of their slaves ; and that the northern states, uninter- 
ested in the consequences of such an act, had a controlling ma- 
jority, which possessed the power, and would not probably want 
the inclination to effect it. 

4. That the pay of the members was by the constitution to 
be fixed by themselves, without limitation or restraint. "They 
may, therefore," said Mr. Henry, "indulge themselves in the 
fullest extent. They will make their compensation as high as 
they please. I suppose, if they be good men, their own deli- 
cacy will lead them to be satisfied with moderate salaries. But 
there is no security for this, should they be otherwise inclined." 

These objections, and many others which it were tedious to 
enumerate, were pressed upon the house day after day, with all 
the powers of reasoning and of eloquence ; and where argument 
and declamation were found unavailing, the force of ridicule 
was freely resorted to. Thus, in relation to the objection of 
consolidation, Mr. Madison had said : — 



?ATRICK HENRY. 205 

"There are a number of opinions as to the nature of the gov- 
ernment; but the principal question is, whether it be a federal 
or consolidated government. In order to judge properly of the 
question before us, we must consider it minutely in its principal 
parts. I conceive, myself, that it is of a mixed nature: — it is, 
in a manner, unprecedented: we cannot find one express exam- 
ple in the experience of the world — it stands by itself. In some 
respects, it is a government of a federal nature; in others, it is 
of a consolidated nature." 

He then proceeds to point out and discriminate its federal 
from its national features. Mr. Corbin, on the same side, ex- 
pressed himself satisfied with Mr. Madison's definition of the 
instrument; but begged leave to call it by another name, viz., 
*'' a representative federal government^ as contradistinguished 
from a confederacy." 

Mr. Henry, in replying to these gentlemen, says: — "This 
government is so new, it wants a name ! I wish its other nov- 
elties were as harmless as this. We are told, however, that, 
collectively taken, it is without an example ! — that it is national 
in this part, and federal in that part, &c. We may be amused, 
if we please, by a treatise of political anatomy. In the brain 
it is national: the stamina are federal — some limbs are feder- 
al, others national. The senators are voted for by the state 
legislatures — so far it is federal. Individuals choose the mem- 
bers of the first branch — here it is national. 

"It is federal in conferring general powers; but national in 
retaining them. It is not to be supported by the states — the 
pockets of individuals are to be searched for its maintenance. 
What signifies it to me, that you have the most curious ana- 
tomical description of it in its creation? To all the common 
purposes of legislation, it is a great consolidation of govern- 
7nent. You are not to have the right to legislate in any but 
trivial cases; you are not to touch private contracts: you are 
not to have the right of having armies in your own defence: 
you cannot be trusted with dealing out justice between man and 
man. 

" What shall the states have to do ? Take care of the poor 
— repair and make highways — erect bridges — and so on, and 
so on ! Abolish the state legislatures at once. What purposes 
should they be continued for? Our legislature will indeed be a 
ludicrous spectacle — one hundred and eighty men, marching in 
solemn farcical procession, exhibiting a mournful proof of the 
lost liberty of their country, without the power of restoring it. 
But, sir, we have the consolation, that it is a mixed government^ 
that is, it may work sorely in your neck; but you will have some 
comfort by saying, that it was a federal government in its origin !*' 

18 



906 WIRT*S LIFE OF 

Notwithstanding this ridicule, however, thrown on some of 
their arguments, Mr. Henry did not fail, on every proper occa- 
sion, to do justice to the great abilities and merits of his adver- 
saries. To the eloquence of Col. Innis he paid a memorable 
tribute; and in one short sentence sketched a picture of it so 
vivid, and so faithful, that it would be injustice to both gentle- 
men not to give it a place: — "That honourable gentleman is 
endowed with great eloquence — eloquence splendid, magnificent, 
and sufficient to shake the human mind!" 

No circumlocution could have described with half the spirit 
and truth, that rare union of pomp and power which distinguished 
Col. Innis; whose car of triumph was always a chariot of war; 
pugncB vel po?npcE, pariter aptus. One of the most singular 
instances on record of the fallacy of the human memory, oc- 
curred in the course of these debates : this was in relation to 
the case of Josiah Phillips, which has been already mentioned. 
Mr. Randolph, in answer to Mr. Henry's panegyrics on the con- 
stitution of the state of Virginia, brought forward that case in 
the following terms : — 

"There is one example of this violation (of the state consti- 
tution) in Virginia, of a most striking and shocking nature; an 
example so horrid, that if I conceived my country would pas- 
sively permit a repetition of it, dear as it is to me, I would seek 
means of expatriating myself from it. A man, who was then a 
citizen, was deprived of his life thus: — from a mere reliance on 
general reports, a gentleman in the house of delegates informed 
the house, that a certain man (Josiah Philips) had committed 
several crimes, and was running at large perpetrating other 
crimes; he, therefore, moved for leave to attaint him; he ob- 
tained that leave instantly; no sooner did he obtain it, than he 
drew from his pocket a bill ready written for that effect; it was 
read three times in one day, and carried to the senate; I will 
not say that it passed the same day through the senate ; but he 
was attainted very speedily and precipitately, without any proof 
better than vague reports! 

" Without being confronted with his accusers and witnesses : 
without the privilege of calling for evidence in his behalf, he 
was sentenced to death, and was afterward actually executed. 
Was this arbitrary deprivation of life, the dearest gift of God to 
man, consistent with the genius of a republican government? 
Is this compatible with the spirit of freedom? This, sir, has 
made the deepest impression in my heart, and I cannot contem- 
plate it without horror." Now the reader, by adverting to the 
statement which has been already given of Philips's case, and 
which is founded on record, will find that there is not one 
word of this eloquent invective that is consistent with the fact* 



PATRICK HENRY. 207 

"What makes the case still more strange is, that Mr. Ran- 
dolph, at the happening of the occurrence to which he alludes, 
held the double office of clerk of the house of delegates, and 
attorney-general of the commonwealth ; in the first character, 
he had, only ten years before, been officially informed, that the 
bill of attainder had not been founded on report, but on a com- 
munication of the governor, enclosing the letter of the command- 
ing officer of the militia in the quarter which was the theatre of 
Philips's ravages ; that that letter had been in due form commit- 
ted to the whole house on the state of the commonwealth, whose 
resolutions led to the bill in question ; and that the bill, instead 
of being read three times in one day, had been regularly, and 
according to the forms of the house, read on three several days. 

While in his character of attorney-general, he had himself 
endicted and prosecuted Philips for highway robbery — con- 
fronted him with the witnesses, whose names are given at the 
foot of the endictment, still extant among our records, and en- 
dorsed in Mr. Randolph's own hand-writing ; convicted him on 
that charge, on which charge, and on which alone. Philips, was 
regularly sentenced and executed. Yet, not only Mr. Ran- 
dolph, but all the other members who had occasion to advert to 
the circumstance, and even Mr. Henry, on whom it is supposed 
to have been designed to bear, proceed in their several crimina- 
tions and defences, upon the admission that Philips had fallen a 
victim to the bill of attainder. Had the incident been of a com- 
mon character, there would have been nothing strange in its 
having been forgotten ; but it is one of so singular and interest- 
ing a nature, that this total oblivion of it by the principal actors 
themselves becomes a matter of curious history. (See Appen 
dix. Note C.) 

The convention had been attended, from its commencement, 
by a vast concourse of citizens of all ages and conditions. The 
interest so universally felt in the question itself, and not less the 
transcendent talents which were engaged in its discussion, pre- 
sented such attractions as could not be resisted. Industry de- 
serted its pursuits, and even dissipation gave up its objects, for 
the superior enjoyments which were presented by the hall ot 
the convention. Not only the people of the town and neigh- 
bourhood, but gentlemen from every quarter of the state, were 
seen thronging to the metropolis, and speeding their eager way 
to the building in which the convention held its meetings. 

Day after day, from morning till night, the galleries of the 
house were continually filled with an anxious crowd, who forgot 
the inconvenience of their situation in the excess of their enjoy- 
ment ; and far from giving any interruption to the course of the 
debate, increased its interest and solemnity by their silence and 



208 WIRT*S LIFE OF 

attention. No bustle, no motion, no sound was heard among 
them, save only a slight movement when some new speaker 
arose, whom they were all eager to see as well as to hear ; or 
when some masterstroke of eloquence shot thrilling along their 
nerves, and extorted an involuntary and inarticulate murmur. 
Day after day was this banquet of the mind and of the heart 
spread before them, with a delicacy and variety which could 
never cloy. 

There every taste might find its peculiar gratifications — the 
man of wit — the man of feeling — the critic — the philosopher — ■ 
the historian — the metaphysician — the lover of logic — the ad- 
mirer of rhetoric — every man who had an eye for the beauty 
of action, or an ear for the harmony of sound, or a soul for the 
charms of poetic fancy — in short, every one who could see, or 
hear, or feel, or understand, might find in the wanton profusion 
and prodigality of that attic feast, some delicacy adapted to his 
peculiar taste. Every mode of attack and of defence, of which 
the human mind is capable, in decorous debate — every species 
of weapon and armour, ofi^ensive and defensive, that could be 
used with advantage, from the Roman javelin to the Parthian 
arrow, from the cloud of Eneas to the shield of Achilles — all 
that could be accomplished by human strength, and almost 
more than human activity, was seen exhibited on that celebra- 
ted floor. 

Nor did the debate become oppressive by its unvarying for- 
mality. The stateliness and sternness of extended argument 
were frequently relieved by quick and animated dialogue. 
Sometimes the conversation would become familiar and friendly. 
The combatants themselves would seem pleased with this re- 
lief; forget that they were enemies, and by a sort of informal 
truce put off their armour, and sit down amicably together to 
repose, as it were, in the shade of the same tree. By this agree- 
able intermixture of colloquial sprightliness and brilliancy with 
profound, and learned, and vigorous argument — of social cour- 
tesy, and heroic gallantry, the audience, far from being fa- 
tigued with the discussion, looked with regret to the hour of ad- 
journment. 

In this great competition of talents, Mr. Henry's powers ot 
debate still shone pre-eminent. They were now exhibiting 
themselves in a new aspect. Hitherto his eflforts, however 
splendid, had been comparatively short and occasional. In the 
house of burgesses in seventeen hundred and sixty-five, in the 
congress of seventeen hundred and seventy-four, and the state 
convention of seventeen hundred and seventy-five, he had ex- 
hibited the impetuous charge of the gallant Francis the First: 
but now, in combination with this fiery force, he was displaying 



PATRICK HENRY. ^09 

an the firm and dauntless constancy of Charles the Fifth. No 
shock of his adversaries could move him from his ground. His 
resources never failed. His eloquence was poured from inex- 
haustible fountains, and assumed every variety of hue and form 
and motion, which could delight or persuade, instruct or as- 
tonish. 

Sometimes it was the limpid rivulet sparkling down the 
mountain's side, and winding its silver course between margins 
of moss — then gradually swelling to a bolder stream, it roared 
in the headlong cataract, and spread its rainbows to the sun — 
now, it flowed on in tranquil majesty, like a river of the west, 
reflecting from it polished surface, forest, and cliff, and sky — 
anon, it was the angry ocean, chafed by the tempest, hanging 
its billows, with deafening clamours, among the cracking 
shrouds, or hurling them in sublime defiance at the storm that 
frowned above. 

Toward the close of the session, an incident occurred of a 
character so extraordinary as to deserve particular notice. The 
question of adoption or rejection was now approaching. The 
decision was siill uncertain, and every mind and every heart 
was filled with anxiety. Mr. Henry partook most deeply of 
this feeling ; and while engaged, as it were, in his last efforts, 
availed himself of the strong sensations which he knew to per- 
vade the house, and made an appeal to it which, in point of sub- 
limity, has never been surpassed in any age or country of the 
world. 

After describing, in accents which spoke to the soul, and to 
which every other bosom deeply responded, the awful immen- 
sity of the question to the present and future generations, and 
the throbbing apprehensions with which he looked to the issue, 
he passed from the house and from the earth, and looking as 
he said, "beyond that horizon which binds mortal eyes," he 
pointed — with a countenance and action that made the blood 
run back upon the aching heart — to those celestial beings who 
were hovering over the scene, and Avaiting with anxiety for a 
decision which involved the happiness or misery of more than 
half the human race. 

To those beings — with the same thrilling look and action — 
he had just addressed an invocation that made every nerve 
shudder with supernatural horror — when, lo ! a storm at that 
instant arose, which shook the whole building, and the spirits 
trhom he had called seemed to have come at his bidding. Nor 
did his eloquence, or the storm immediately cease — but avail- 
ing himself of the incident, with a master's art, he seemed to 
mix in the fight of his ethereal auxiliaries, and " rising on the 
wings of the tempest, to seize upon the artillery of Heaven, 
o 18* 



no 

and direct its fiercest thunders against the heads of his adver 
saries." The scene became insupportable ; and the house 
rose without the formality of adjournment, the members rush- 
ing from their seat with precipitation and confusion.* 

But all his efforts were in vain. Either the justice of the op- 
posing cause, or the powers of his adversaries, or the prejudg- 
ed opinions and instructions of the members, rendered his rea- 
soning and his eloquence equally unavailing. Out of a house, 
composed of one hundred and sixty-eight members, the ques- 
tion of ratification was carried by a majority of ten. Mr. 
Henry seemed to have a presage of this result. After the 
storm which has been mentioned. Colonel Innis, who, in his 
character of attorney-general, had been hitherto attending a 
court of oyer and terminer, came into the house, and the de- 
bate was renewed. Mr. Henry, in answering him, closed the 
last speech which he delivered on the floor, with the following 
remarks : — 

" I beg pardon of this house for having taken up more time 
than came to my share ; and I thank them for the patience and 
polite attention with which I have been heard. If I shall be in 
the minority, I shall have those painful sensations which arise 
from a conviction of being overpowered in a good cause. Yet, 
I will be a peaceable citizen ! M}'' head, my hand, and my 
heart shall be free to retrieve the loss of liberty, and remove 
the defects of that system, in a constitutional way. I wish 
not to go to violence, but will wait with hopes that the spirit 
which predominated in the revolution is not yet gone : nor the 
cause of those who are attached to the revolution yet lost — 1 
shall therefore patiently wait, in expectation of seeing that 
government changed, so as to be compatible with the safety, 
liberty, and happiness of the people." 

The objections, however, which had been urged, and the ar- 
guments by which they had been supported, although they 
had not succeeded in preventing the ratification of the cbnsti- 
tution, had produced a very serious effect on the house. Be- 
fore their final dissolution, they agreed to a bill of rights, and 
a series of amendments (twenty in number,) embracing and 
providing for the objections of Mr. Henry and his associates. 
A copy of these amendments, engrossed on parchment, and 

* The words above quoted are those of Judge Archibald Stewart ; a gen- 
tleman who was present, a member of the convention, and one of those who 
voted against the side of the question supported by Mr. Henry. The incident, 
as given in the text, is wholly founded on the statements of those who were 
witnesses of the scene ; and by comparing it with the corresponding passage 
in the printed debates, the reader may decide how far these are to be relied on 
as specimens of Mr. Henry's eloquence. 



PATRICK HENRY. Sll 

Signed by the president of the convention, was ordered to be 
transmitted to congress, together with the instrument of rati- 
fication. Similar copies were ordered to be transmitted to 
the executive and legislatures of the several states ; and fifty 
copies of the ratification and proposed amendments were ordered 
to be struck for the use of each county in this commonwealth. 

Mr. Henry lost no ground with the people, at the time, for 
the part which he had taken on this occasion ; and when after- 
ward the constitution began to develop its tendencies by prac- 
tical operation, so many of his predictions were believed by a 
majority of the people of Virginia to be fulfilled, and so many 
more in a rapid progress of fulfilment, that his character for 
political penetration rose higher than ever. That he had lost 
no ground at the time, two signal proofs were given in the ses- 
sion of assembly immediately following that of the convention. 
The latter body rose on the twenty-seventh of June, and the 
assembly met on the twentieth of October following. This 
interval had been too short to permit the subsidence of that 
high excitement, which the canvass of the constitution had 
provoked ; and the assembly was consequently discriminated 
iDy feelings of party as strong and determined, as those which 
had characterized the convention itself. 

The constitution having been adopted by a sufficient num- 
ber of states to carry it into effect, it became necessary at this 
session to provide for its organization, and, among other meas- 
ures, to choose two senators to represent this state, in the con- 
gress of the United States. For this office, Mr. Madison was 
presented by those who were at that time distinguished by the 
appellation of federalists ; by which nothing more was then 
meant, than that they were advocates for the adoption of the 
new federal constitution. 

The anti-federalists, on the contrary, who were alarmed by 
the vast powers which they considered as granted by the con- 
stitution, regarded it as a salutary check on the constructive 
extension of those powers, and as the best means of securing 
those amendments which they deemed essential to the liber- 
ties of the people, that the first congress should be composed 
of men of their own sentiments. In opposition to Mr. Madi- 
son, therefore, Mr. Henry took the unusual liberty of nomi- 
nating two candidates, Mr. Richard H. Lee and Mr. Grayson ; 
and, notwithstanding the great accession of character which 
Mr. Madison had acquired by the ability with which he had es- 
poused the ratification of the constitution, those gentlemen 
were elected by a considerable majority. 

At the same session of the assembly, Mr. Hfjnry, whose 
mind seems to have been filled with the most opp fessive soli- 



212 WIRT*8 LIFE OP 

citude by the unconditional adoption of the constitution, and 
who brooded with correspondent anxiety over the most effect 
ive means of procuring amendments, moved, in the committee 
of the whole house, the following preamble and resolu- 
tions : — 

"Whereas the convention of delegates of the people of this 
commonwealth did ratify a constitution or form of government 
for the United States, referred to them for their consideration, 
and did also declare that sundry amendments to exceptionable 
parts of the same ought to be adopted ; and whereas the sub- 
ject-matter of the amendments agreed to by the said convention 
involves all the great, essential, and unalienable rights, liber- 
ties, and privileges of freemen; many of which, if not cancel- 
led, are rendered insecure under the said constitution, until the 
same shall be altered and amended : — 

" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that 
for quieting the minds of the good citizens of this common- 
wealth — and securing their dearest rights and liberties — and 
preventing those disorders which must arise under a govern- 
ment not founded in the confidence of the people — application 
be made to the congress of the United States, as soon as they 
shall assemble under the said constitution, to call a convention 
for proposing amendments to the same, according to the mode 
therein directed. 

" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that a 
committee ought to be appointed to draw up and report to the 
house, a proper instrument of writing, expressing the sense of 
the general assembly, and pointing out the reasons which in- 
duce them to urge their application thus early, for calling the 
aforesaid convention of the states. 

" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that 
the said committee ought to be instructed to prepare the draft 
of a letter, in answer to one received from his excellency 
George Clinton, Esq., president of the convention of New 
York — and a circular letter, on the aforesaid subject, to the 
other states in the union, expressive of the wish of the general 
assembly of this commonwealth, that they may join in an appli- 
cation to the new congress, to appoint a convention of the states, 
so soon as the congress shall assemble under the new consti- 
tution.'* 

These were carried in committee, and immediately reported 
to the house; when a motion was made to amend them, by 
striking out from the word '♦ whereas," and substituting in lieu 
of the original, the following preamble and resolutions : — 

** Whereas, the delegates appointed to represent the good 
people of this commonwealth, in the late convention held in 



PATRICK HENRY. fitlS 

the month of June last, did, by their act of the twenty-fifth of 
the same month, assent to and ratify the constitution, recom- 
mended on the seventeenth day of September, seventeen hun- 
dred and eighty-seven, by the federal convention for the gov- 
ernment of the United States, declaring themselves, with a sol- 
emn appeal to the Searcher of hearts for the purity of their 
intentions, under the conviction, " that whatsoever imperfec- 
tions might exist in the constitution, ought rather to be exam- 
ined in the mode prescribed therein, than to bring the Union 
into danger by a delay, with a hope of obtaining amendments 
previous to the ratification. 

" And whereas, in pursuance of the said declaration, the 
same convention did, by their subsequent act of the twenty- 
seventh of June, aforesaid, agree to such amendments to the 
said constitution of the government for the United States, as 
were by them deemed necessary to be recommended to the 
consideration of the congress which shall first assemble under 
the said constitution, to be acted upon according to the mode 
prescribed in the fifth article thereof; at the same time enjoin- 
ing it upon their representatives in congress, to exert all their 
influence, and use all reasonable and legal methods, to obtain a 
ratification of the foregoing alterations and provisions, in the 
manner provided by the fifth article of the said constitution, 
and in all congressional laws to be passed in the meantime, to 
conform to the spirit of those amendments as far as the said 
constitution would admit. 

" Resolved, Therefore, that it is the opinion of this committee* 
that an application ought to be made, in the name and on the 
behalf of the legislature of this commonwealth, to the congress 
of the United States, so soon as they shall assemble under the 
said constitution, to pass an act recommending to the legisla- 
tures of the several states, the ratification of a bill of rights, 
and of certain articles of amendment, proposed by the conven- 
tion of this state, for the adoption of the United States; and 
that, until the said act shall be ratified in pursuance of the fifth 
article of the said constitution of the government for the United 
States, congress do conform their ordinances to the true spirit 
of the said bill of rights and articles of amendment. 

^^ Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that the 
executive ought to be instructed to transmit a copy of the fore- 
going resolution to the congress of the United States, so soon 
as they shall assemble, and to the legislatures and executive 
authorities of each state in the union." 

On this proposal of amendment a very animated debate en- 
sued, which resulted in its rejection, and the adoption of the 
original report, by a majority of more than two for one. 



di4 

These two measures — the 'election of the senators named by 
Mr. Henry, in o.pposition to so formidable a competitor as Mr. 
Madison — and the carrying so strong a measure as the call of a 
new continental convention, for the purpose of revising and al- 
tering the constitution — certainly furnish the most decisive proof, 
that his influence remained unimpaired by the part which he 
had taken in the convention of the state. 

It was in the course of the debate which has been just men- 
tioned, that Mr. Henry was driven from his usual decorum into 
a retaliation, that became a theme of great public merriment at 
the time, and has continued ever since one of the most popular 
anecdotes that relate to him. 

He had insisted, it seems, with great force, that the speedy 
adoption of the amendments was the only measure that could 
secure the great and unalienable rights of the freemen of this 
country — that the people were known to be exceedingly anxious 
for this measure — that it was the only step which could recon- 
cile them to the new constitution — and assure that public con- 
tentment, security, and confidence, which were the sole objects 
of government, and without which no government could stand 
— that whatever might be the individual sentiments of gentle- 
men, yet the wishes of the people, the foundation of all author- 
ity, being known, they were bound to conform to those wishes 
— that, for his own part, he considered his opinion as nothing, 
when opposed to those of his constituents; and that he was 
ready and willing at all times and on all occasions, ^\to bow, 
with the utmost deference, to the majesty of the people" 

A young gentleman, on the federal side of the house, who had 
been a member of the late convention, and had in that body, re- 
ceived, on one occasion, a slight touch of Mr. Henry's lash, re- 
solved now, in an ill-fated moment, to make a set charge upon 
the veteran, and brave him to the combat. He possessed fancy, 
a graceful address, and an easy, sprightly elocution; and had 
been sent by his father, (an opulent man, and an officer of high 
rank and trust under the regal government,) to finish his educa- 
tion in the colleges of England, and acquire the polish of the 
court of St. James ; where he had passed the whole period of 
the American revolution. 

Returning with advantages which were rare in this country, 
and with the confidence natural to his years, presuming a little 
too far upon those advantages, he seized upon the words, "bow 
to the majesty of the people," which Mr. Henry had used, and 
rung the changes upon them with considerable felicity. 

He denied the solicitude of the people for the amendments, 
so strenuously urged on the other side; he insisted that the peo- 
ple thought their ^^ great and unalienable rights" sufficiently se- 



PATRICK HENRY. ^ 5816 

cured by the constitution which they had adopted : that the pre- 
amble of the constitution itself, which was now to be considered 
as the language of the people, declared its objects to be, among 
others, the security of those very rights; the people then de- 
clare the constitution the guarantee of their rights, while the 
gentleman, in opposition to this public declaration of their sen- 
timents, insists upon his amendments as furnishing that guaran- 
tee; yet the gentleman tells us, that "he bows to the majesty 
of the people:" these words he accompanied with a most grace- 
ful bow. 

"The gentleman," he proceeded, "had set himself in oppo- 
sition to the will of the people, throughout the whole course of 
this transaction: the people approved of the constitution: the 
suffrage of their constituents in the last convention had proved 
it — the people wished, most anxiously wished, the adoption of 
the constitution, as the only means of saving the credit and the 
honour of the country, and producing the stability of the union: 
the gentleman, on the contrary, had placed himself at the head 
of those who opposed its adoption — yet, the gentleman is ever 
ready and willing, at all times and on all occasions, to bow to 
the majesty of the people,''^ (with another profound and graceful 
bow.) 

Thus he proceeded, through a number of animated sentences, 
winding up each one with the same words, sarcastically repeat- 
ed, and the accompaniment of the same graceful obeisance. 
Among other things, he said, "it was of little importance whether 
a country was ruled by a despot, with a tiara on his head, or by 
a demagogue in a red cloak, a caul-bare wig," &c., (describing 
Mr. Henry's dress so minutely, as to draw every eye upon him,) 
"although he should profess on all occasions to bow to the ma- 
jesty of the peopled 

A gentleman who was present, and who, struck with the sin- 
gularity of the attack, had the curiosity to number the vibrations 
on those words, and the accompanying action, states, that he 
counted thirteen of the most graceful bows he had ever beheld. 
The friends of Mr. Henry considered such an attack on a man 
of his years and high character as very little short of sacrilege ; 
on the other side of the house, there was, indeed, a smothered 
sort of dubious laugh, in which there seemed to be at least as 
much apprehension as enjoyment. Mr. Henry had heard the 
whole of it without any apparent mark of attention. 

The young gentleman having finished his philipic, very much 
at least to his own satisfaction, took his seat, with the gayest 
expression of triumph in his countenance — ^^Heu! Nescia 
mens hominum, fati, sortisque futures .'" Mr. Henry raised 
himself up, heavily, and with affected awkwardness — . 



316 WIRt*S LIFE OF 

"Mr. Speaker," said he, "-I am a plain man, and have been 
educated altogether in Virginia. My whole life has been spent 
among planters, and other plain men of similar education, who 
have never had the advantage of that polish which a court alone 
can give, and which the gentleman over the way has so happily 
acquired; indeed, sir, the gentleman's employments and mine 
(in common with the great mass of his countrymen) have been 
as widely different as our fortunes; for while that gentleman 
was availing himself of the opportunity which a splendid for- 
tune afforded him, of acquiring a foreign education, mixing 
among the great, attending levees and courts, basking in the 
beams of royal favour at St. James\ and exchanging courtesies 
with crowned heads, I was engaged in the arduous toils of the 
revolution; and was probably as far from thinking of acquiring 
those polite accomplishments which the gentleman has so suc- 
cessfully cultivated, as that gentleman then was from sharing in 
the toils and dangers in which his unpolished countrymen were 
engaged. 

"I will not, therefore, presume to vie with the gentleman in 
those courtly accomplishments, of which he has just given the 
house so agreeable a specimen ; yet such a bow as I can make, 
shall be ever at the service of the people." — Herewith, although 
there was no man who could make a more graceful bow than 
Mr. Henry, he made one so ludicrously awkward and clownish, 
as took the house by surprise, and put them into a roar of laugh- 
ter. — "The gentleman, I hope, will commiserate the disadvan- 
tages of education under which I have laboured, and will be 
pleased to remember, that 1 have never been a favourite with that 
monarch, whose gracious smile he has had the happiness to enjoy." 

He pursued this contrast of situations and engagements, for 
fifteen or twenty minutes, without a smile, and without the 
smallest token of resentment, either in countenance, expression, 
or manner. "You would almost have sworn," says a corres- 
pondent, "that he thought himself making his apology for his 
own awkwardness, before a full drawing-room at St. James.' 
I believe there was not a person that heard him, the sufferer 
himself excepted, who did not feel every risible nerve affected. 
His adversary meantime hung down his head, and sinking low- 
er and lower, until he was almost concealed behind the inter- 
posing forms, submitted to the discipline as quietly as a Russian 
malefactor, who had been beaten with the knout, till all sense 
o.f feeling was lost." 

The documents reported and adopted by the house of dele 
gates, in consequence of the foregoing resolutions, are the fol- 
lowing — which are given because they are said to be from the 
pen of Mr. Henry: — 



PATRICK HENRY. 217 

*'' Resolved^ That it is the opinion of this committee, that an 
application ought to be made, in the name and on behalf of the 
legislature of this commonwealth, to the congress of the United 
States, in the following words, to wit: — 
"The good people of this commonwealth, 

"In convention assembled, having ratified the constitution 
submitted to their consideration, this legislature has, in confor- 
mity to that act, and the resolutions of the United States in con- 
gress assembled, to them transmitted, thought proper to make 
the arrangements that were necessary for carrying it into effect. 
Having thus shown themselves obedient to the voice of their 
constituents, all America will find that so far as it depends on 
them, that plan of government will be carried into immediate 
operation. But the sense of the people of Virginia would be 
but in part complied with, and but little regarded, if we went no 
further. 

"In the very moment of adoption, and coeval with the ratifi- 
cation of the new plan of government, the general voice of the 
convention of this state pointed to objects no less interesting to 
the people we represent, and equally entitled to your attention. 
At the same time that, from motives of affection for our sister 
states, the convention yielded their assent to the ratification, 
they gave the most unequivocal proofs that they dreaded its 
operation under the present form. 

"In acceding to a government under this impression, painful 
must have been the prospect, had they not derived consolation 
from a full expectation of its imperfections being speedily 
amended. In this resource, therefore, they placed their confi- 
dence — a confidence that will continue to support them, while 
they have reason to believe they have not calculated upon it in 
vain. 

"In making known to you the objections of the people of 
this commonwealth to the new plan of government, we deem it 
unnecessary to enter into a particular detail of its defects, which 
they consider as involving all the great and unalienable rights 
of freemen: For their sense on this subject, we refer you to the 
proceedings of their late convention, and the sense of this gen- 
eral assembly, as expressed in their resolutions of the day 

of . 

"We think proper, however, to declare that, in our opinion, 
as those objections Were not founded on speculative theory, but 
deduced from principles which have been established by the 
melancholy example of other nations, in different ages — so they 
never will be removed, until the cause itself shall cease to exist. 
The sooner, therefore, the public apprehensions are quieted, and 
the government is possessed of the confidence of the people, 

19 



SilB WIRT*S LIFE OF 

the more salutary will be its* operations, and the longer its du- 
ration. 

"The cause of amendnients we consider as a common cause; 
and since concessions have been made from political motives, 
which we conceive may endanger the republic, we trust that a 
commendable zeal will be shown for obtaining those provisions, 
which experience has taught us are necessary to secure from 
danger the unalienable rights of human nature. 

"The anxiety with which our countrymen press for the ac- 
complishment of this important end, will ill admit of delay. 
The slow forms of congressional discussion and recommenda- 
tion, if indeed they should ever agree to any change, would we 
fear be less certain of success. Happily for their wishes, the 
constitution hath presented an alternative, by submitting the de- 
cision to a convention of the states. To this, therefore, we re- 
sort, as the source from whence they are to derive relief from 
their present apprehensions. 

"We do, therefore, in behalf of our constituents, in the most 
earnest and solemn manner, make this application to congress. 
that a convention be immediately called, of deputies from the 
several states, with full power to take into their consideration 
the defects of this constitution that have been suggested by the 
state conventions, and report such amendments thereto as they 
shall find best suited to promote our common interests, and se- 
cure to ourselves, and our latest posterity, the great and unali- 
enable rights of mankind." 

Draft of a letter to Governor Clinton on the same subject: — 

"Sir: The letter from the convention of the state of New- 
York hath been laid before us since our present session. The 
subject which it contemplated was taken up, and we have the 
pleasure to inform you of the entire concurrence in sentiment, 
between that honourable body and the representatives in senate 
and assembly of the freemen of this commonwealth. 

"The propriety of immediately calling a convention of the 
states, to take into consideration the defects of the constitution 
was admitted ; and in consequence thereof, an application agreed 
to, to be presented to the congress, so soon as it shall be con- 
vened for the accomplishment of that important end. We here- 
with transmit to your excellency, a copy of this application, 
WHICH we request may be laid before your assembly at their 
next meeting. We take occasion to express our most earnest 
wishes that it may obtain the approbation of New-York, and of 
all other sister states." 

Draft of a letter to the several states on the same subject: — 

"The freemen of this commonwealth, in convention assem- 
bled, having, at the same time that they ratified the federal con- 



PATRICK HKNRY. 219 

slitution, expressed a desire that many parts, which they con- 
sidered as exceptionable parts, should be amended — the general 
assembly, as well from a sense of duty as a conviction of its 
defects, have thought proper to take the earliest measures in 
their power, for the accomplishment of this important object. 
They have accordingly agreed upon an application to be pre- 
sented to the congress, so soon as it shall be assembled, request- 
ing that honourable body to call a convention of deputies from 
the several states, to take the same into their consideration, and 
report such amendments as they shall find best calculated to 
answer the purpose. 

"As we conceive that all the good people of the United States 
are equally interested in obtaining those amendments that have 
been proposed, we trust that there will be a harmony in their 
sentiments and measures, upon this very interesting subject. 
We herewith transmit to you a copy of this application, and 
take the liberty to subjoin our earnest wishes that it may have 
your concurrence." 

In the two remaining years during which Mr. Henry contin- 
ued a member of the assembly, I find nothing worthy of par- 
ticular remark. In the spring of seventeen hundred and ninety- 
one, he declined a re-election, with the purpose of bidding a 
final adieu to public life: and although the tender of the most 
honourable appointments, the solicitations of his numerous 
friends and admirers, and ultimately his own wishes conspired 
to draw him from his retreat, he never again made his appear- 
ance in a public character. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Mr. Henry continues the Practice of the Law — Case of " the British Debts'* 
— Uncommon Interest elicited to hear Mr. Henry on this Case — His Speech 
— Mode of answering opposing Counsel — Sketch of Him in his professional 
Character — His Defence of the Son of Dr. Holland on his Trial for Murder 
— Anecdote of the Case af John Hook — He bids a final Adieu to his Profes- 
sion in 1794. 

Mr. Henry still continued, however, rather through neces- 
sity than choice, the practice of the law : and in the fall of this 
year, seventeen hundred and ninety-one, a cause came on to 
be argued before the circuit court of the United States, in which 
he made what has been considered his most distinguished dis- 
play of professional talents. This was the celebrated case of 



220 



WIRT S LIFE OP 



the British debts ; a case in which, from its great and exten- 
sive interest, the whole power of the bar of Virginia was em- 
barked, and which was discussed with so much learning, argu- 
ment, and eloquence, as to have placed that bar, in the estima- 
tion of the federal judges, (if the reports of the day may be 
accredited,) above all others in the United States. 

The cause was argued first in seventeen hundred and ninety- 
one, before Judges Johnson and Blair, of the supreme court, 
and Griffin, judge of the district ; and afterward in seventeen 
hundred and ninety-three, before Judges Jay and Iredell, and 
the same district judge. Mr. Henry was one of the counsel 
for the defendant, and argued the cause on both occasions. 
The deep interest of the question, in a national point of view, 
and the manner in which it involved more particularly the 
honour of the state of Virginia, and the fortunes of her citi- 
zens, had excited Mr. Henry to a degree of preparation which 
he had never before made ; and he came forth, on this occasion, 
a perfect master of every principle of law, national and muni- 
cipal, which touched the subject of investigation in the most 
distant point. 

Of the first argument, a manuscript report is still extant, ta- 
ken in shorthand by Mr. Robertson, the same gentleman who 
reported the debates of the convention of Virginia in seven- 
teen hundred and eighty-eight. The second argument was not 
reported ; because, as Mr. Robertson states, he was informed 
by the counsel, that it would be nothing more than a repetition 
of the first; and he adds, that he was afterward told it was 
much inferior. What must we conclude, then, as to the pow- 
ers displayed by Mr. Henry in the first argument, when, in the 
course of the second and inferior one, he extorted from Judge 
Iredell, as he sat on the bench, the exclamation: — "Gracious 
God ! — He is an orator indeed /" 

The report of the first argument, as deciphered by Mr. Rob- 
ertson, from his stenographic notes, has been obligingly sub- 
mitted to the author of these sketches, and he has extracted 
from it an imperfect analysis of Mr. Henry's speech. The re- 
port may unquestionably be relied on, so far as it professes to 
state the principles of law, and the suhstance of the arguments 
urged by the very eminent counsel engaged in the cause ; and 
in this point of view, it is to be lamented that so valuable a 
work should still exist only in the form of a manuscript. But, 
as a sample of Mr. Henry's peculiar and inimitable eloquence, 
it is subject to all the objections which have been already urged 
to the printed debates of the Virginia convention. 

This manuscript report bears upon its face the most con- 
clusive proof of its inaccuracy in those passages in which li 



PATRICK HENRY. 323 

attempts to exhibit either the captivating flights of Mr. Hen- 
ry's fancy, or those unexpected and overwhelming assaults 
which he made upon the hearts of his judges ; for in all such 
passages, (it is believed, without an exception,) the pen has 
been drawn through the sentence as originally written, in such 
a manner, however, as to leave the words still legible ; while 
the same thought, or something like it, has been interlined in 
other words ; and even the interlineations themselves are of- 
tener than otherwise erased, altered, and farther interlined, for 
the purpose of seeking to amend the expression : so that, in 
casting one's eyes over the manuscript report of Mr. Henry's 
speech, in order to single out the most brilliant passages, those 
which are the most blotted and blurred by erasures and inter- 
lineations may be selected at once, without the hazard of mis- 
take. Hence, it is obvious, that the reporter had not in his 
stenographic notes, the very expression of the speaker; but 
some hint merely of the thought, which he was afterward un- 
able to fill up to his own satisfaction. If farther evidence on 
this subject were required, it is found in this circumstance : that, 
on reading Mr. Robertson's imitations of the splendid parts 
of Mr. Henry's speech to several of those who heard it deliv- 
ered, there has not been one who has not turned off from the 
recital with the strongest expressions of disappointment, and 
^n several instances corrected by memory the language of the 
reporter. 

This explanation is equally due to the memory of Mr. Henry, 
to the reader, and the author ; for the author is fully aw^are, 
ihat if the truth of the general character which he has attempt- 
ed to give of Mr. Henry's eloquence shall be tested by those 
imperfect specimens to which, for want of more accurate ones, 
he has been compelled to resort, discredit will be thrown upon 
the whole work, and it will be regarded rather as romance than 
history. But the ingenuous and candid reader will look be- 
yond those poor and wretched imitations, and my own equally 
poor and wretched descriptions, to that proof of Mr. Henry's 
eloquence which is furnished by its practical effects. Can 
there be any doubt of the supreme eloquence of that man 
who awakened and hushed at his pleasure, " the stormy wave 
of the multitude ?" who, by his powers of speech, roused the 
whole American people from north to south ? put the revolu- 
tion into motion, and bore it upon his shoulder, as Atlas is said 
to do the heavens? to whose charms of persuasion, not the 
rabble merely, but all ranks of society, have borne the most 
unanimous evidence ? who moved not merely the populace, the 
rocks, and stones of the field, but, "by the summit took the 
mountain-oak, and made him stoop to the Dlain ?" 

19* 



233 vvirt's life of . [ 

Instead, then, of comparing our descriptions of Mr. Henry's 
eloquence with the specimens which his reporters have made 
of it, let the reader compare that description with the effects 
which it actually wrought, and the universal testimony which 
is borne to it, by the rapturous admiration of every one who 
ever had the happiness to hear him ; and the author so far from 
being afraid of the charge of exaggeration, will be apprehen- 
sive only of that of presumption, in attempting a description of 
powers so perfectly undescribable. 

But to return to his argument in the case of the British debts. 
In order to render intelligible the analysis which we propose 
to give to the reader, it will be necessary to prefix to it a state- 
ment of 4he case, of the pleadings, and the points made in ar- 
gument, by the opening counsel. 

William Jones, a British subject, as surviving partner of the 
mercantile house of Farrell and Jones, brought an action of 
debt in the federal circuit court at Richmond, against Doc- 
tor Thomas Walker, of the county of Albemarle, in Virginia, 
on a bond which bore date before the revolutionary war ; to- 
wit, on the eleventh of May, seventeen hundred and seventy- 
two. To this action the defendant pleaded five several 
pleas : — 

1. The first was, the plea of payment generally, on which 
the plaintiif took issue; but it was not tried, the cause having 
gone off on the demurrers growing out of the subsequent 
pleadings. 

2. In his second plea, the defendant relies on the act of se- 
questration, passed by the legislature of Virginia during the 
revolutionary war, to wit, on the twentieth of October, seven- 
teen hundred and seventy-seven; by which it was enacted, that 
*'it should be lawful for any citizen of this commonwealth, ow- 
ing money to a subject of Great Britain, to pay the same, or any 
part thereof, from time to time, as he should think fit, into the 
loan office of the state ; taking thereout a certificate for the same 
in the name of the creditor, with an endorsement under the hand 
of the commissioner of the loan office, expressing the name of 
the payee, delivering such certificate to the governor and coun- 
cil, whose receipt should discharge him from so much of the 
debt :^^— and the defendant exhibits the governor's receipt for 
two thousand one hundred and fifty-one pounds and eighteen 
shillings, which he offers in bar to so much of the plaintiffs 
demand. 

3. In his third plea, he sets out the act of forfeiture, passed 
by the assembly on the third of May, seventeen hundred and 
seventy-nine, whereby it was, among other things, enacted, 
" that all the property, real and personal, within the common- 



PATRICK HENRY. 223 

wealth, belonging at that time to any British subject, should be 
deemed to be vested in the commonwealth;" as also the act of 
the sixth of May, seventeen hundred and eighty-two, whereby 
it was enacted, "that no demand whatsoever, originally due to 
a subject of Great Britain, should be recoverable in any court 
of this commonwealth, although the same might be transferred 
to a citizen of this state, or to any other person capable of main- 
taining such action, unless the assignment had been or might be 
made for a valuable consideration bona fide paid before the first 
of May, seventeen hundred and seventy-seven:" and the plea 
insists that the debt, in the declaration mentioned, was personal 
property of a British subject, forfeited to the commonwealth 
under the first-mentioned act, and a demand, whose recovery in 
the courts of the commonwealth was barred by the last. 

4. The fourth plea takes the ground, that the king of Britain 
and his subjects were still alien enemies, and that the state of 
war still continued, on the ground of the several direct viola- 
tions of the definitive treaty of peace, which follow: — 

First, in continuing to carry off the negroes in his possession, 
the property of American citizens, and refusing to deliver them, 
or permit the owners to take them, according to the express 
stipulations of that treaty: — 

Secondly, in the forcible retention of the forts Niagara and 
Detroit, and the adjacent territory: — 

Thirdly, in supplying the Indians, who were at war with the 
United States, with arms and ammunition, furnished within the 
territories of the United States, to wit, at the forts Detroit and 
Niagara, and at other forts and stations forcibly held by the 
troops and armies of the king, within the United States; and in 
purchasing from the Indians, within the territories aforesaid, the 
plunder taken by them in war from the United States, and the 
persons of American citizens made prisoners; which several 
infractions, the plea contends, had abolished the treaty of peace, 
and placed Great Britain and the United States in a state of war ; 
and that hence, the plaintiff", being an alien enemy, had no right 
to sue in the courts of the United States. 

5. The fifth plea sets forth, that at the time of contracting the 
debt in the declaration mentioned, the plaintiff" and the defend- 
ant were fellow-subjects of the same king and government; that 
on the fourth of July, seventeen hundred and seventy-six, the 
government of the British monarch in this country was dissolved, 
and the coallegiance of the parties severed; whereby the plea 
contends, that the debt in the declaration mentioned was annulled. 

To the second plea the plaintiff* replied, insisting on the treaty 
of peace of seventeen hundred and eighty-three, whereby it was 
stipulated, that creditors on either side should meet with no 



^^ wirt's life of 

lawful impediment to the recovery of the full value, in sterling 
money, of all bona fide debts theretofore contracted; and also 
on the constitution of the United States of seventeen hundred 
and eighty-seven, by which it had been expressly declared, that 
treaties which were then made, or which should thereafter be 
made, under the authority of the United States, should be the 
supreme law of the land, anything in the constitution, or the 
laws of any state, to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The defendant rejoined, that the treaty had been annulled by 
the infractions of it on the part of Great Britain, and so could 
not aid the cause of the plaintiff; and farther, that the debt in 
the declaration mentioned was not bona fide due, and owing to 
the plaintiff at the date of the treaty, insomuch as the same (or 
at least two thousand one hundred and fifty-one pounds and 
eighteen shilHngs of it) had been discharged by the payment set 
forth in the second plea; and hence, that it was not a subsisting 
debt, within the terms and provisions of the treaty. 

To this rejoinder, as also to the third, fourth, and fifth pleas 
of the defendant, the plaintiff demurred; and the cause came on 
to be argued, on these demurrers, at Richmond, on the twenty- 
fourth of November, seventeen hundred and ninety-one. 

The Virginian reader will readily estimate the splendour and 
power of the discussion in this case, when he learns the names 
of the counsel engaged in it; on the part of the plaintiff, then, 
were Mr. Ronald, Mr. Baker, Mr. Wickham, and Mr. Starke; 
and on that of the defendant, Mr. Henry, Mr. Marshall, (af- 
terward chief justice of the United States,) Mr. Alexander Camp- 
bell, and Mr. Innis, the attorney-general of Virginia: I mention 
their names in the order in which they spoke on their respective 
sides. 

The cause was opened with great fairness and ability, by Mr. 
Ronald and Mr. Baker, in succession; they were answered by 
all the counsel of the defendant; and Mr. "Wickham, Mr. Starke, 
and. Mr. Baker, were heard in the reply. The opening counsel 
made the following points: — 

First, that debts were not a subject of confiscation in war. 

Secondly, that if they were, Virginia, at the time of passing 
the acts relied on by the defendant, was not a sovereign and in- 
dependent state. Great Britain not having at that time assented 
to her independence; and hence, that she had not the power of 
legislating away the debts of fellow-subjects not represented in 
her legislative councils — which councils, were themselves a 
usurpation in the eye of the law. 

Thirdly, that if debts were subject to confiscation, and Vir- 
ginia were competent to pass laws to that effect, she had not 
done so ; and Mr. Baker particularly entered into a minute and 



PATRICK HENRY. SJb 

ingenious scrutiny of the language of the several acts of as- 
:Jembly, to prove that, so far from having been forfeited, the 
debts were recognised as existing British debts down to the yeai 
seventeen hundred and eighty-two. 

Fourthly, that if all these points were against the plaintiff, 
the right of recovering those debts was restored by the treaty 
of seventeen hundred and eighty-three, and the constitution ot 
the United States, which recognised that treaty as the supreme 
law of the land; and, 

Fifthly, that the alleged infractions of the treaty on the part 
of Great Britain did not produce the effect of abolishing the 
treaty; that this was a national concern, with which the indi- 
vidual plaintiff and defendant had nothing to do; that the ques- 
tion of infraction was one to be decided by the supreme power 
of the nation only, and one of which the court could not, with 
any propriety, take cognizance. 

Mr. Baker closed his opening speech on Thursday evening, 
the twenty-fourth of November, and it was publicly understood 
that Mr. Henry was to commence his reply on the next day. 
The legislature v/as then in session; but when eleven o'clock, 
the hour for the meeting of the court, arrived, the speaker found 
himself without a house to do business. All his authority and 
that of his sergeant-at-arms were unavailing to keep the mem- 
bers in their seats; every consideration of public duty yielded 
to the anxiety which they felt, in common with the rest of their 
fellow-citizens, to hear this great man on this truly great and 
extensively-interesting question. 

Accordingly, when thejicourt was ready to proceed to business, 
the court-room of the capitol, large as it is, was insufficient to 
contain the vast concourse that was pressing to enter it. The 
portico, and the area in which the statue of Washington stands, 
were filled with a disappointed crowd, who, nevertheless, main- 
tained their stand without. In the court-room itself, the judges 
through condescension to the public anxiety, relaxed the rigour 
of respect which they were in the habit of exacting, and per- 
mitted the vacant seats of the bench, and even the windows be- 
hind it, to be occupied by the impatient multitude. The noise 
and tumult, occasioned by seeking a more favourable station, 
were at length hushed, and the profound silence which reigned 
within the room gave notice to those without, that the orator 
had risen, or was on the point of rising. 

Every eye in front of the bar was riveted upon him with the 
most eager attention; and so still and deep was the silence, that 
every one might hear the throbbing of his own heart. Mr. 
Henry, however, appeared wholly unconscious that all this prep- 
aration was on his account, and rose with as much simplicity 



226 wirt's life of 

and composure, as if the occasion had been one of ordinary oc- 
currence. Nothing can be more plain, modest, and unaffected, 
than his exordium: — "I stand here, may it please your honours, 
to support, according to my power, that side of the question 
which respects the American debtor. 

"I beg leave to beseech the patience of this honourable court; 
because the subject is very great and important, and because I 
have not only the greatness of the subject to consider, but those 
numerous observations which have come from the opposing 
counsel to answer. Thus, therefore, the matter proper for my 
discussion is unavoidably accumulated. Sir, there is a circum- 
stance in this case, that is more to be deplored than that which 
I have just mentioned, and that is this : those animosities which 
the injustice of the British nation hath produced, and which I 
had well hoped would never again be the subject of discussion, 
are necessarily brought forth. 

"The conduct of that nation, which bore so hard upon us in 
the late contest, becomes once more the subject of investigation. 
I know, sir, how well it becomes a liberal man and a Christian 
to forget and to forgive. As individuals professing a holy reli- 
gion, it is our bounden duty to forgive injuries done us as indi- 
viduals. But when to the character of Christian you add the 
character of patriot, you are in a different situation. Our mild 
and holy system of religion inculcates an admirable maxim of 
forbearance. If your enemy smite one cheek, turn the other to 
him. But you must stop there. You cannot apply this to your 
country. As members of a social community, this maxim does 
not apply to you. When you consider injuries done to your 
country, your political duty tells you of vengeance. Forgive 
as a private man, but never forgive public injuries. Observa- 
tions of this nature are exceedingly unpleasant, but it is my 
duty to use them." , 

With the same primeval simplicity, he enters upon the argu- 
ment; not making a formal division of the whole subject, but 
merely announcing the single proposition which he was about 
to maintain for the time; thus, immediately after the exordium 
which has been quoted he proceeds thus: — 

"The first point which I shall endeavour to establish will be, 
that debts in common wars become subject to forfeiture; and if 
forfeited in common wars, much more must they be so in a rev- 
olution war, as the late contest was. In considering this sub- 
ject, it will be necessary to define what a debt is. I mean by it 
an engagement, or promise, by one man to pay another, for a 
valuable consideration, an adequate price. By a contract thus 
made, for a valuable consideration, there arises what, in the law 
phrase, is called a lien on the body and goods of the promissoj* 



PATRICK HENRY. 227 

or debtor. This interest, which the creditor becomes entitled 
to, in the goods and body of his debtor, is such as may be taken 
from the creditor, if he be found the subject of a hostile country. 

''This position is supported by the following authorities." 
He then cites and reads copious extracts from Grotius and Vat- 
tel, which seem to support his position decisively — and then 
proceeds thus: — "This authority decides in the most clear and 
satisfactory manner, that, as a nation, we had powers as exten- 
sive and unlimited as any nation on earth. This great writer, 
after stating the equality and independence of nations, and who 
are, and who are not enemies, does away the distinction between 
corporeal and incorporeal rights, and declares that war gives 
the same right over the debts, as over the other goods of an 
enemy. 

"He illustrates his doctrine by the instance of Alexander's 
remitting to the Thessalians, a debt due by them to the Theban 
commonwealth : this is a case in point — for supposing the sub- 
jects of Alexander had been indebted to the Thebans, might he 
not have remitted the debts due by them to that people, as well 
as the debts due them by his allies, the Thessalians? Let me 
not be told that he was entitled to the goods of the Thebans, 
because he had conquered them. If he could remit a debt due 
by those whose claim of friendship was so inferior, those who 
were only attached to him by the feeble ties of contingent and 
temporary alliance — if his Macedonians, his immediate and nat- 
ural subjects, were indebted to the Thebans, could he not have 
re*nitted their debts? 

"This author states, in clear, unequivocal terms, by fair in- 
ference and unavoidable deduction, that when two nations are 
at war, either nation has a right, according to the laws of nature 
and nations, to remit to its own citizens debts which they may 
owe to the enemy.* If this point wanted further elucidation, it 
is pointedly proved by the authority which I first quoted from 
Grotius, that it is an inseparable concomitant of sovereign pow- 
er, that debts and contracts similar to those which existed in 
America, at the time the war with Great Britain broke out, may, 
in virtue of the eminent domain, or right, be cancelled and 
destroyed. 

"'j1 king- has a greater right in the goods of his subjects, 
for the public advantage, than the proprietors themselves. 
And when the exigency of the state requires a supply, every 
man is more obliged to contribute toward it, than to satisfy his 
creditors. The sovereign may discharge a debtor from the ob- 
ligation of paying, either for a certain time, or for ever ' 
What language can be more expressive than this? Can the 
mind of man conceive anything more comprehensive? 



228 wirt's life of 

"Rights are of two sorts, private and inferior, or eminent and 
superior^ such as the community hold over the persons and es- 
tates of its members for the common benefit. The latter is par- 
amount to the former. A king or chief of a nation has a 
greater right than the owner himself over any property in the 
nation. The individual who owns private property cannot dis 
pose of it, contrary to the will of his sovereign, to injure the 
public. This author is known to be no advocate for tyranny, 
yet he mentions that a king has a superior power over the prop- 
erty in his nation, and that by virtue thereof, he may discharge 
his subjects for ever from debts which they owe to an enemy. 

"The instance which our author derives from the Roman his- 
tory, affords a striking instance of the length to which the ne- 
cessities and exigencies of a nation will warrant it to go. It 
was a juncture critical to the Roman affairs. But their situation 
was not more critical or dangerous than ours at the time these 
debts were confiscated. It was after the total defeat and dread- 
ful slaughter at Cannae, when the state was in the most imminent 
danger. Our situation in the late war was equally perilous. 
Every consideration must give way to the public safety. 

"That admirable Roman maxim, salus populi suprema lex^ 
governed that people in every emergency. It is a maxim that 
ought to govern every community. It was not peculiar to the 
Roman people. The impression came from the same source 
from which we derive our existence. Self-preservation, that 
great dictate implanted in us by nature, must regulate our con- 
duct; we must have a power to act according to our necessities, 
and it remains for human judgment to decide what are the prop- 
er occasions for the exercise of this power. Call to your rec- 
ollection our situation during the late arduous contest. "Was 
it not necessary in our day of trial,* to go to the last iota of hu- 
man right? The Romans fought for their altars and household 
gods. By these terms they meant everything dear and valuable 
to men. Was not our stake as important as theirs? 

"But many other nations engage in the most bloody wars for 
the most trivial and frivolous causes. If other nations who car- 
ried on wars for a mere point of honour, or a punctili#of gal- 
lantry, were warranted in the exercise of this power, were not 
we, who fought for everything most inestimable and valuable to 
mankind, justified in using it? Our finances were in a more 
distressing situation than theirs at this awful period of our ex- 
istence. Our war was in opposition to the most grievous op- 
pression — we resisted, and our resistance was approved and 
blessed by Heaven. 

"The most illustrious men who have considered human af- 
fairs, when they have revolved human rights, and considered 



PATRICK HENRY. 

how far a nation is warranted to act in cases of emergency, de- 
clare that the only ingredient essential to the rectitude and va- 
lidity of its measures is, that they be for the public good. I 
need hardly observe that the confiscation of these debts was for 
the public good. Those who decided it were constitutionally 
enabled to determine it. Grotius shows that you have not only 
power over the goods of your enemies, but according to the 
exigency of affairs, you may seize the property of your citizens." 

After reading the apposite passage from Grotius, he says : — 
*'I read these authorities to prove, that the property of an enemy 
is liable to forfeiture, and that debts are as much the subject of 
hostile contest as tangible property. And Vattel, page 484, as 
before mentioned, pointedly enumerates rights and debts among 
such property of the enemy as is liable to confiscation. To this 
last author I must frequently resort in the course of my argu- 
ment. I put great confidence in him, from the weight of his 
authority — for he is universally respected by all the wise and 
enlightened of mankind, being no less celebrated for his great 
judgment and knowledge, than for his universal philanthropy. 
One of his first principles of the law of nations is, a perfect 
equality of rights among nations; that each nation ought to be 
left in the peaceable enjoyment of that liberty it has derived 
from nature. 

"I refer your honours to his preliminary discourse from 6th 
to the 12th page; and as it will greatly elucidate the subject, 
and tend to prove the position I have attempted to support, I 
will read sections 17, 18, 19, and 20, of this discourse." Hav- 
ing read these sections, he touches transiently, but powerfully, 
the objection to the want of national independence to pass the 
laws of forfeiture, till that independence was assented to by the 
king of Great Britain. "When the war commenced," said he, 
"these things, called British debts, lost their quality of external 
obligation, and became matters of internal obligation, because 
the creditors had no right of constraint over the debtors. They 
were before the war, matters of perfect external obligation, ac- 
companied by a right of constraint; but the war having taken 
away this right of constraint over the debtors, they were changed 
into an internal obligation, binding the conscience only. For 
it will not surely be denied, that the creditor lost the right of 
constraint over his debtor. 

"From the authority of this respectable author, therefore — 
from the clearest principles of the laws of nature and nations, 
these debts became subject to forfeiture or remission. Those 
authors state, in language as emphatic and nervous as the human 
mind can conceive, or the human tongue can utter, that inde- 
pendent nations have the power of confiscating the property of 

20 



280 WIRT S LIFE OF 

their enemies; and so had th's gallant nation. America, being 
a sovereign and complete nation, in all its forms and depart- 
ments, possessed all the rights of the most powerful and ancient 
nations. Respecting the power of legislation, it was a nation 
complete, and without human control. Respecting public jus- 
tice, it was a nation blessed by Heaven, with the experience of 
past times ; not like those nations, whose crude systems of ju- 
risprudence originated in the ages of barbarity and ignorance 
of human rights. 

"America was a sovereign nation, when her sons stepped 
forth to resist the unjust hand of oppression, and declared them- 
selves independent. The consent of Great Britain was not ne- 
cessary (as the gentlemen on the other side urge) to create us 
a nation. Yes, sir, we were a nation, long before the monarch 
of that little island in the Atlantic ocean gave his funy assent 
to it." — These words he accompanied by a most significant 
gesture — rising on tiptoe — pointing as to a vast distance, and 
half-closing his eyelids, as if endeavouring with extreme difTi- 
culty, to draw a sight on some object almost too small for vision 
■ — and blowing out the words puny assent, with lips curled with 
unutterable contempt. — 

"America was, long before that time, a great and gallant na- 
tion. In the estimation of other nations we were so: the be- 
neficent hand of Heaven enabled her to triumph, and secured 
to her the most sacred rights mortals can enjoy. When these 
illustrious authors, these friends to human nature, these kind 
instructors of human errors and frailties,* contemplate the ob- 
ligations and corresponding rights of nations, and define the in- 
ternal right, which is without constraint and not binding, do 
they not understand such rights as these, which the British 
creditors now claim? Here this man tells us what conscience 
says ought to be done, and what is compulsory. These British 
debts must come within the grasp of human power, like all other 
human things. They ceased to have that external quality, and 
fell into that mass of power which belonged to our legislature 
by the law of nations." 

He comes now to a very serious obstacle, which it required 
both address and vigour to remove. Vattel, whom he had 
cited to support his position of the forfeitable character o» 
debts, and who, so far as Mr. Henry had read him, does sup- 
port him explicitly, annexes a qualification to the principle, 
which had been pressed with great power by the gentlemen 
who opened the cause. The curiosity of the reader will be 
gratified by seeing the manner in which he surmounted the 

* In the second argument, he eulogized the writers on the laws of nations, 
as " benevolent spirits, who held up the torch of science to a benighted world." 



PATRICK HENRY. 231 

objection. "But we are told, that admitting this to be true in 
the fullest latitude, yet the customary law of Europe is against 
the exercise of this power of confiscation of debts ; in support 
of which position, they rely on what is added by Vattel, p. 484. 

Let us examine what he says : — ' The sovereign has naturally 
the same right over what his subjects may be indebted to ene- 
mies : therefore, he may confiscate debts of this nature, if the 
term of payment happen in the time of war, or at least he may 
prohibit his subjects from paying while the war lasts. But at 
present, in regard to the advantage and safety of commerce, all 
the sovereigns of Europe have departed from this rigour. 
And as this custom has generally been received, he who should 
act contrary to it, would injure the public faith ; for strangers 
trusted his subjects only, from a firm persuasion, that the 
general custom would be observed.' 

" Excellent man ! and excellent sentiments ! The principle 
cannot be denied to be good : but when you apply it to the case 
before the court, does it warrant their conclusions ? The 
author says, that although a nation has a right to confiscate 
debts due by its people to an enemy, yet, at present the cus- 
tom of Europe is contrary. It is not enough for this author to 
tell us that this custom is contrary to the right. He admits 
the right. Let us see whether this custom has existence here. 
Vattel, having spoken of the necessary law of nations, which 
is immutable, and the obligations whereof are indispensable, 
proceeds to distinguish the several other kinds of natural law 
in the same preliminary discourse, pp. 11 and 12, thus : — 

" ' Certain maxims and customs consecrated by long use, and 
observed by nations between each other, as a kind of law, form 
this customary law of nations, or the custom of nations. This 
law is founded on a tacit consent, or, if you will, on a tacit 
convention of the nations that observe it with respect to each 
other. Whence, it appears, that it is only binding to those 
nations that have adopted it, and that is not universal, any 
more than conventional laws. It must be here also observed 
of this customary law, that the particulars relating to it do not 
belong to a systematic treatise on the law of nations, but that 
we ought to confine ourselves to the giving a general theory of 
it, that is, to the rules which here ought to be observed, as well 
with respect to its effects, as in relation to the matter itself: 
and in this last respect, these rules will serve to distinguish the 
lawful and innocent customs, from those that are unjust and 
illegal ! 

"'When a custom is generally established, either between 
all the polite nations in the world, or only between those of a 
certain continent, as of Europe for example ; or those who 



232 WIRT*S LIFE OF 

have a more frequent correspondence ; if that custom is in its 
own nature indifferent, and much more, if it be a wise and 
useful one, it ought to be obligatory on all those nations loho 
are considered as having given their consent to it. And they 
are bound to observe it loith respect to each other, while they 
have not expressly declared that they will not adhere to it. 
But if that custom contains anything unjust or illegal, it is of 
no force ; and every nation is under an obligation to abandon 
it, nothing being able to oblige or permit a nation to violate a 
natural law. 

" ' These three kinds of the law of nations, voluntary, con- 
ventional and customary, together, compose the positive law 
of nations. For they all proceed from the volition of nations ; 
the voluntary law, from their presumed consent : the conven- 
tional law, from an express consent ; and the customary laWf 
from a tacit consent : and as there can be no other manner of 
deducing any law from the will of nations, there are only these 
three kinds of the positive law of nations.* 

"This excellent author, after having stated the voluntary 
law of nations to be the result of the equality of nations, and 
the conventional law to be particular compacts or treaties, 
binding only on the contracting parties, declares, that the 
customary law of nations is only binding to those nations 
that have adopted it ; that it is a particular and not a univer- 
sal law ; that it applies only to distinct nations. The case of 
Alexander and the Thebans is founded on the general law of 
nations, applicable to nations at war. It is enough for me, then, 
to show that America, being at war, was entitled to the privi- 
lege of national law. But, says Vattel, the present state of 
European refinement controls the general law (of which he had 
been before speaking). 

" We know that the customary law of nations can only bind 
those who are parties to the custom. In the year 1776, when 
America announced her will to be free, or in the year 1777, 
when the law concerning British debts passed, was there a cus- 
tomary law of America to this effect? Or were the customary 
laws of Europe binding on America? Were we a party to 
any such customary law ? Was there anything in our consti- 
tution or laws which tied up our hands ? No, sir. To make 
this customary law obligatory, the assent of all the parties to 
be bound by it is necessary. There must be an interchange 
of it. 

" It is not for one nation or community to say to another, you 
are bound by this law, because our kingdom approves of it. 
It must not only be reciprocal in its advantages and principles., 
but it must have been reciprocal in its exercise* Virginia 



PATRICK HENRY. S33 

could not, therefore, be bound by it. Let us see whether it 
could be a hard case on the British creditors, that this custom- 
ary law of nations did not apply in their favour. "Were these 
debts contracted /roTTi a 'persuasion of its observance ? Did 
the creditors trust to this customary law of nations ? No, sir. 
They trusted to what they thought as firm, the statute and 
common laio of England. 

" Victorious and successful as their nation had lately been, 
when they, in their pride and inconsiderate self-confidence, 
stretched out the hand of oppression, their subjects placed no 
reliance on the customs of ij articular nations. They put con- 
fidence in those barriers of right, which were derived from 
their own nation. Their reliance was, that the tribunals estab- 
lished in this country, under the same royal authority, as in 
England, would do them justice. If we were not willing, they 
possessed the power of compelling us to do them justice. The 
debts, having, therefore, not been contracted yVom a/iy reliance 
on the customary law of nations^ were they contracted from 
a regard * to the rights of commerce V 

" From a view of promoting the commerce of those little 
things called colonies? This regard could not have been the 
ground they were contracted on, for their conduct evinced that 
they wished to take the right of commerce from us. What 
other ingredient remains to show the operation of this custom 
in their favour ? The book speaks of strangers trusting sub- 
jects of a different nation, from a reliance on the observance 
of the customary law. 

"The fact here was, that fellow-subjects trusted us, on the 
footing just stated ; trusted to the existing compulsory process 
of law, not relying on a passive inert custom. A fearful, 
plodding, sagacious trader, would not rely on so flimsy, so un- 
certain a dependance. Something similar to what he thought 
positive satisfaction, he relied on. Were we not subject to the 
same king ? The cases are then at variance. He states the 
custom to exist for the advantage of commerce, and that a de- 
parture from it would injure the public faith. Public faith is 
in this case out of the question. 

" The public faith was not pledged — it could not therefore 
be injured. I have already read to your honours from the 11th 
page of the preliminary discourse of Vattel, Hhat the customa- 
ry law of nations is only binding on those who have adopted it, 
and that it is not universal, any more than conventional laws.^ 
It is evident we could not be bound by any convention or treaty 
to which we ourselves were not a party : and from this author- 
ity it is equally obvious that we could not be bound by any 
customary law to which we were not parties. 

20* 



4^ wirt's life of 

" I think, therefore, with ^reat submission to the court, tha:t 
the right for which I contended, that is, that in common wars 
between independent nations, either of the contending parties 
has a right to confiscate or remit debts due by its people to the 
enemy, is not shaken by the customary law of nations, as far 
as it regards us, because the custom could not affect us. But 
gentlemen say we were not completely independent till the 
year 1783 ! To take them on their own ground, their argu- 
ments will fail them. There is a customary law which will op- 
erate pretty strongly on our side of the question. What were 
the inducements of the debtors ? On what did the American 
debtor rely? 

" Sir, he relied for protection on that system of common and 
statute law on which the creditors depended. Was he deceived 
in that reliance ? That he was most miserably deceived, I be- 
lieve will not admit of a doubt. The customary law of nations 
will only apply to distinct nations, mutually consenting thereto. 
When tyranny attempted to rivet her chains upon us, and we 
boldly broke them asunder, we w^re remitted to that amplitude 
of freedom which the beneficent hand of Nature gave us. We 
were not bound by fetters which are of benefit to one party, 
while they are destructive to the other. Would it be proper 
that we should be bound, and they unrestrained?" 

As a still farther answer to the objection, and as giving the 
only rule of restraint in operating on the property of a belli- 
gerant, he cites the following principle from Vattel, and applies 
it to the actual state of America : " Vattel, book the 3d, ch. 8, 
sect. 137, says, that 'the lawful end gives a true right only to 
those means which are necessary for obtaining" such end. 
Whatever exceeds this, is censured by the laws of nature as 
faulty, and will be condemned at the tribunal of conscience. 
Hence it is, that the right to such or such acts of hostility 
varies according to their circumstances. What is just and per- 
fectly innocent in a war, in one particular situation, is not 
always so in another. Right goes hand in hand with necessity, 
and the exigency of the case ; but never exceeds it.' 

"This, sir, is the first dictate of nature, and the practice of 
of nations ; and if your misfortunes and distresses should be 
sad and dreadful, you are let loose from those common restraints 
which may be proper on common occasions, in order to pre- 
serve the great rights of human nature. 

"This is laid down by that great writer in clear and unequiv- 
ocal terms. If then, sir, it be certain from a recurrence to 
facts, that it was necessary for America to seize on British 
property, this book warrants the legislature of this state in 
passing those confiscating and prohibitory laws. I need onlr 



PATRICK HENRY. 1236 

refer to your recollection, for our pressing situation during the 
late contest ; and happy am I, that this all-important question 
comes on, before the heads of those, who were actors in the 
great scene, are laid in the dust. An uninformed posterity 
would be unacquainted with the awful necessity which im- 
pelled us on. 

" If the means were within reach, we were warranted by the 
laws of nature and nations to use them. The fact was, that 
we were attacked by one of the most formidable nations under 
heaven ; a nation that carried terror and dread with its thunder 
to both hemispheres." — [This illustration of the power of Great 
Britain was, if we may trust respectable tradition, much more 
expanded than we find it in the report ; and such was the force 
of his imagination, and the irresistible energy of his delivery 
and action, that the audience now felt themselves instinctively 
recoiling from the tremendous power of that very nation, 
which but a short time before had been exhibited as a mere dot 
in the Atlantic, a point so microscopic as to be scarcely visible 
to the naked eye : he proceeds to close the first member of his 
first point thus :1 

** Our united property enabled us to look in the face that 
mighty people. Dared we to have gone in opposition to them 
bound hand and foot ? Would we have dared to resist them 
fettered? for we should have been fettered, if we had been 
deprived of so considerable a part of our little stock of na- 
tional resources. In that most critical and dangerous emer- 
gency, our all was but a little thing. Had we a treasury? — an 
exchequer? Had we commerce? Had we any revenue ? Had 
we anything from which a nation could draw wealth ? No, 
sir. Our credit became the scorn of our foes. However, the 
efforts of certain patriotic characters (there were not a few of 
them, thank Heaven) gave us credit among our own people. 

"But we had not a farthing to spare. We were obliged to 
go on a most grievous anticipation, the weight of which we 
feel at this day. Recur to our actual situation, and the means 
which we had of defending ourselves. The actual situation of 
America is described here, where this author says, * that ris;ht 
goes hand in hand with necessity^* The necessity of being 
great and dreadful, you are warranted to lay hold of every 
atom of money within your reach, especially if it be the money 
of your enemies. It is prudent and necessary to strengthen 
yourselves and weaken your enemies. 

*' Vattel, book 3d, ch. 8, sect. 138, says, ' The business of a 
just war being to suppress violence and injustice, it gives aright 
to compel, by force, him who is deaf to the voice of justice. It 
^ives a right of doing against the enemy, whatever la necessary 



236 wirt!s life of 

for weakening him — for disabling him from making any farther 
resistance in support of his injustice — and the most effectual, 
the most proper methods may be chosen, provided they have 
nothing odious, be not unlawful in themselves, or exploded by 
the law of nature.' Here let me pause for a moment, and ask, 
whether it be odious in itself, or exploded by the law of nature, 
to seize those debts ? 

*'No — because the money was taken from the very offenders. 
We fought for the great, unalienable, hereditary rights of hu- 
man nature. An unwarrantable attack was made upon us. An 
attack, not only not congenial with motherly or parental tender- 
ness, but incompatible with the principles of humanity or civil- 
ization. Our defence then was a necessary one. What says 
Vattel, book 3d, chapter 8, section 136? — 'The end of a just 
war is to revenge or prevent injury ; that is, to procure by force 
the justice which cannot otherwise be obtained ; to compel an 
unjust person to repair an injury already done, or to give secu- 
rities against any wrong threatened by him. 

" ' On a declaration of war, therefore, this nation has a right 
of doing against the enemy whatever is necessary to this justi- 
fiable end of bringing him to reason, and obtaining justice and 
security from him.' We have taken nothing in this necessary 
defence, but from the very offenders — those who unjustly -at- 
tacked us : for we had a right of considering every individual 
of the British nation as an enemy. This I prove by the same 
great writer, p. 519, section 139, of the same book : — *An ene- 
my attacking me unjustly gives an undoubted right of repelling 
his violences ; and he w^ho opposes me in arms, when I demand 
only my right, becomes himself the real aggressor, by his un- 
just resistance. He is the first author of violence, and obliges 
me to make use of force, for securing myself against the 
wrongs intended me either in my person or possessions ; for if 
the effects of this force proceed so far as to take away his life, 
he owes the misfortune to himself ; for, if by sparing him, I 
should submit to the injury, the good would soon become the 
prey of the wicked. 

'"Hence the right of killing enemies in a just war is de- 
rived ; when their resistance cannot be suppressed — when they 
are not to be reduced by milder methods, there is a right of 
taking away their life. Under the name of enemies, as wc 
have already shown, are comprehended not only the first au- 
thor of the war, but Wkewise all who join him, and jight for his 
cause.'' Thus I think the first part of my position confirmed 
and unshaken ; that in common wars, a nation not restrained 
by the customary law of nations, has a right to confiscate debts." 

In the second member of that point, he is released from the 



PATRICK HENRY, f37 

servility of quotation ; and, to borrow a phrase of his own, 
*' remitted to the amplitude" of his natural genius : the reader 
will therefore be amused by a more copious extract : — " From 
this I will go on to the other branch of my position : that if, 
in common wars, debts be liable to forfeiture, a fortiori^ must 
they be so in a revolution war. Let me contrast the late war 
with wars in common. According to those people called kings, 
wars in common are systematic and produced for trifles ; for 
not conforming to imaginary honours ; because you have not 
lowered your flag before him at sea ; or for a supposed affront 
to the person of an ambassador. 

"Nations are set by the ears, and the most horrid devasta- 
tions are brought on mankind, for the most frivolous causes. 
If then, when small matters are in contest, debts be forfeitable, 
what must have accrued io us, as engaged in the late revolution 
war — a war commenced in attainder, perfidy, and confiscation ? 
If we take with us this great principle of Vattel, that right 
goes in hand with necessity, and consider the peculiar situation 
of the American people, we will find reason more than suffi- 
cient to give us a right of confiscating those debts. 

" The most striking peculiarity attended the American war. 
In the first of it, we were stripped of every municipal right. 
Rights and obligations are correspondent, co-extensive, and in- 
separable — they must exist together, or not at all. "We were, 
therefore, when stripped of all our municipal rights, clear of 
every municipal obligation, burden, and onerous engagement. 
If then the obligation be gone, what is become of the corres- 
pondent right? They are mutually gone." 

These little words, "they are mutually gone," which would 
have made no figure in the pronunciation of an ordinary 
speaker, are said to have formed a beautiful picture, as delivered 
by Mr. Henry : his eyes seemed to have pursued these asso- 
ciated objects to the extremest verge of mortal sight, while the 
fall of his voice, and correspondent fall of his extended hand, 
with the palm downward, depicted the idea of evanescence 
with indescribable force : the audience might imagine, that 
they saw the objects at the very instant when they vanished 
in the distance, and became commingled with the air : and all 
this, too, without any affected pause to give it effect ; without 
any apparent eflfort on his part ; but with all the quickness of 
thought and all the ease of nature. 

"The case of sovereign and independent nations at war is 
far different ; because, there private right is respected, and do- 
mestic asylum held sacred. Was it the case in our war? No, 
sir. Daggers were planted in your chambers, and mischief, 
death, and destruction, might meet you at your fireside. 



1538 wirt's life of 

" There is an essential variance between the late war and 
common wars. In common wars, children are not obliged to 
fight against their fathers, nor brothers against brothers, nor 
kindred against kindred. Our men were compelled, contrary 
to the most sacred ties of humanity, to shed the blood of their 
dearest connexions. In common wars, contending parties re- 
spect municipal rights, and leave even to those they invade, 
the means of paying debts, and complying with obligations ; 
they touch not private property. For example, when a British 
army lands in France, they plunder nothing : they pay for 
what they have, and respect the tribunals of justice, unless they 
have a mind to be called a savage nation. 

" Were we thus treated ? Were we permitted to exercise in- 
dustry and to collect debts, by which we might be enabled to 
pay British creditors ? Had we a power to pursue commerce? 
No, sir. What became of our agriculture? Our inhabitants 
were mercilessly and brutally plundered, and our enemies pro- 
fessed to maintain their army by those means only. Our slaves 
carried away, our crops burnt, a cruel war carried on against 
our agriculture — disability to pay debts produced by pillage 
and devastation, contrary to every principle of national law. 
From that series of plenty in which we had been accustomed 
to live and to revel, we were plunged into every species of hu- 
man calamity. 

" Our lives attacked — charge of rebels fixed upon us — con- 
fiscation and attainder denounced against the whole continent ; 
and he that was called king of England sat judge upon our 
case — he pronounced his judgment, not like those to whom poetic 
fancy has given existence — not like him who sits in the in- 
fernal regions, and dooms to the Stygian lake those spirits who 
deserve it, because he spares the innocent, and sends some to 
the fields of Elysium — not like him who sat in ancient imperial 
Rome, and wished the people had but one neck, that he might 
at one blow strike off their heads, and spare himself the trouble 
of carnage and massacre, because one city would have satisfied 
his vengeance — not like any of his fellow-men, for nothing 
would satiate his sanguinary ferocity, but the indiscriminate de- 
struction of a whole continent — involving the innocent with 
the guilty. 

" Yes, he sat in judgment with his coadjutors, and pronoun 
ced proscription, attainder, and forfeiture, against men, women, 
and even children at the breast. Is not this description point- 
edly true in all its parts? And ii5/io were his coadjutors and 
executioners in this strange court of judicature? Like the 
fiends of poetic imagination — Hessians, Indians and Negroes, 
were his coadjutors and executioners. Is there anything in 



PATRICK HENRY. 

this sad detail of offences which is unfounded ? anything not 
enforced by the act of parliament against America? We were 
thereby driven o^ut of their protection, and branded by the 
epithet rebels. The term rebel may not now appear in all its 
train of horrid consequences. 

"We know that when a person is called rebel by that gov- 
ernment, his goods and life are forfeited, and his very blood 
pronounced to be corrupted, and the severity of the punish- 
ment entailed on his posterity. To whom may we apply for 
the verity of this? The jurisprudence and history of that 
nation prove, that, when they speak of rebels, nothing but 
blood will satisfy them. Is there nothing hideous in this part 
of the portrait? It is unparalleled in the annals of mankind. 
Though I have respect for individuals of that nation, my duty 
constrains me to speaks thus. 

*' When we contemplate this mode of warfare, and the sen- 
timents of the writers on natural law on this subject, we are 
justified in saying, that in this revolution war, we had a right 
to consider British debts as subject to confiscation — and to seize 
the property of those who originated that war. As to the in- 
juries done to agriculture, they appear in a diminutive view, 
when compared to the injuries and indignities offered to per- 
sons, and mansions of abode. Sir, from your seat you might 
have seen instances of the most grievous hostility : not only 
private property wantonly pillaged, but men, women, and chil- 
dren, dragged publicly from their habitations, and indiscrimin- 
ately devoted to destruction. The rights of humanity were 
sacrificed. We were then deprived not only of the benefits of 
municipal, but natural law. 

"If there shall grow out of these considerations a palpable 
disability to pay those debts, I ask if the claim be just? For 
that disability was produced by those excesses — by those very 
men who come on us now for payment. Here give me leave 
to say, that they sold us a bad title in whatever they sold us — 
in real as well as in personal property. Describe the nature 
of a debt: it is an engagement or promise to pay — but it must 
be for a valuable consideration. If this be clear, was not the 
title, to whatever property they sold us, bad in every sense of 
the word, when the war followed ? What can add value to 
property? Force. 

"Notwithstanding the equity and fairness of the debt when 
incurred, if the security of the property received was after- 
ward destroyed, the title has proved defective. Suppose mill- 
ions were contracted for and received, those millions give you 
no advantage without force to protect them. This necessary 
protection is withdrawn by the very men who were bound to 



!M0 wirt's life of 

afford it, and who now demand payment. Neither lands, slaves, 
tior other property, are worth a shilling, without protecting 
force. This title was destroyed, when the act of parliament, 
putting us out of their protection, passed against America. I 
say, sir, the title was destroyed by the very offenders who come 
here now and demand payment. Justice and equity cancel the 
obligation as to the price that was to be given for it, because 
the tenure is destroyed, and the effects purchased have no 
value. 

"Such a claim is unsupported by the plainest notions of right 
and wrong. For this long catalogue of offences committed 
against the citizens of America, every individual of the British 
nation is accountable. How are you to be compensated for 
those depredations on persons and property? Are you to go 
to the kingdom of England, to find the very individual who did 
you the outrage, and demand satisfaction of him ? To tell you 
of such a remedy as this, is adding insult to injury. Every 
individual is chargeable with national offences." 

To maintain this last position, he cites an authority expressly 
in point, from Vattel, and proceeds thus : — " These olDserva- 
tions of Vattel amount to this : that a king or conductor of a 
nation is considered as a moral person, by means of whom the 
nation acquires or loses its rights, and subjects itself to pen- 
alties. The individuals, and the nation which they compose 
are one. I will therefore take it for granted, that whatever 
violences and excesses were committed on this continent are 
chargeable to the plaintiff in this very action. Recollect our 
distressed situation. We had no exchequer, no finances, no 
army, no navy, no common means of defence. 

"Our necessity — dire necessity compelled us to throw aside 
those rules which respect private property, and to make im- 
presses on our own citizens to support the war. Right and 
necessity being co-extensive, we were compelled to exert a 
right the most eminent over the whole community. The salus 
populi demanded what we did. If we had a right to disregard 
the legal fences thrown round the property of our citizens, had 
we not a greater right to take British property? 

"Another peculiarity contributes to aid our defence. The 
want of an exchequer obliged us to emit paper money, and 
compel our citizens to receive it for gold. In the ears of some 
men this sounds harshly. But they are young men, who do 
not know and feel the irresistible necessity that urged us. 
Would your armies have been raised, clothed, maintained, or 
kept together without paper money ? Without it, the war 
would have stood still, resistance to tyranny would have stop 
ped, and despotism, with all its horrid train of appurtenances, 



PATRICK HENRY. 241 

must have depressed your country. We compelled the people 
to receive it in payment of all debts — we induced and invited 
them (if we did not compel them) to put it into the treasury, 
as a complete discharge from their debts. 

" Sir, I trust I shall not live to see the day, when the public 
counsels of America, will give ground to say that this was a 
state trick, contrived to delude and defraud the citizens. What 
must it be ostensibly, when, by the compact of your nation, 
they had publicly bound and pledged themselves, that it was 
and should be money, if afterward, in the course of human 
events, when temptations present themselves, they shall de- 
clare that it is not money ? 

" Sir, the honest planter is unskilled in political tricks and 
deceptions. His interest ought never to be sacrificed. The 
law is his guide. The lav/ compelled him to receive it, and his 
countrymen would have branded him with the name of enemy 
if he had refused it. The laws of the country are as sacred 
as the imaginary sanctity of British debts. Sir, national en- 
gagements ought to be held sacred ; the public violation of 
this solemn engagement \\;ill destroy all confidence in the gov- 
ernment. If you depart from the national compact one iota, 
you give a dangerous precedent, which may imperceptibly and 
gradually introduce the most destructive encroachment on hu- 
man rights." 

He then proceeds to notice more directly the objection, that 
we were not a people competent for legislation till the assent 
of the British king was given to our independence: — "I will 
beg leave here to dissent from the position of the gentleman 
on the other side, which denied that we were a people, till our 
enemies were pleased to say we were so. That we were a 
people, and had a right to do everything which a great and a 
royal — nay, an imperial people could do, is clear and indispu- 
table. Though under the humble appearance of republican- 
ism, our government and national existence, when examined, 
are as solid as a rock — not resting on the mere fraud and op- 
pression of rulers, nor the credulity nor barbarous igno- 
rance of the people ; but founded on the consent and convic- 
tion of enlightened human nature. That we had every right 
that completely independent nations can have, will be satisfac- 
torily proved to your honours, by again referring to Vattel." 

He then cites and reads a passage from Vattel, the effect of 
which is, that during a civil war, the parties, acknowledging no 
common judge on earth, are to be considered as two distinct 
people ; and to govern themselves in the conduct of the war 
by the general laws of nations. After which he proceeds 
thus : — 

Q 21 



>t2 wirt's life of 

* Here then, sir, is proof' abundant, that be^rt; the acknowl-i 
edgment of American independence by Great jd-ntaiih we had 
aright to b^ considered as a nation; because on eaitk we had 
no common superior, to give a decision of the dispute between 
us and our sovereign. After declaring ourselves a sovereign 
people we had every right a nation can claim as an independent 
community. But the gentlemen on the other side greatly rely 
upon this principle, that a contract cannot be dissolved without 
the consent of all the contracting parties : the inference is, that 
the consent of the king of Great Britain was necessary to the 
dissolution of the government. 

"Tyranny has too often and too successfully riveted its 
chains, to warrant a belief, that a tyrant will ever voluntarily 
release his subjects from the governmental compact. Rather 
might it be expected, that the last iota of human misery would 
be borne, and the oppression would descend from father to 
son, to the latest period of earthly existence. The despotism 
of our sovereign ought to be considered as an implied consent, 
on his part, to dissolve the compact between us ; and he and 
his subjects must be considered as one — there can be no dis- 
tinction. For, in any other view, his consent would not have 
been obtained without force. There is such a thing, indeed, 
as tyranny from free choice. Sweden not long ago surren- 
dered its liberties in one day, as Denmark had done formerly ; 
so that this branch of the human family is cut off from every 
possible enjoyment of human rights. 

"But the right to resist oppression is not denied. The gen- 
tlemen's doctrine cannot therefore apply to national communi- 
ties. If any additional force was wanting to confirm what I 
advance, it would be derived from the treaty of peace, which 
further proves, that we were entitled to all the privileges of in- 
dependent nations. The consent of all the people of Europe 
said we were free. Our former master withheld his consent 
till a/eiz? unlucky events compelled him. And when he gave 
his fiat, it gave us, by relation back to the time of the declara^ 
Hon of independence, all the rights and privileges of a com- 
pletely sovereign nation : our independence was acknowledged 
by him, previous to the completion of the treaty of peace. It 
was not a condition of the treaty, but was acknowledged, by 
his own overture, preparatory to it. 

"View the consequences of their fatal doctrine. There 
would not only have been long arrears of debts to pay, but a 
long catalogue of crimes to be punished. If the ultimate ac- 
knowledgment of our independence by Great Britain had not 
relation back to the time of the declaration of independence, 
all the intermediate acts of legislation would be void — and 



PATRICK HENRY. ^W 

every decision anS act, ronsequent thereon, would be null. 
But, sir, we were a complete nfition on every principle, accord- 
ing to the authorities I have already read ; in addition to which 
I will refer your honours to Vattel, book iv. ch. vii. sec. 88, to 
show we were entitled to the benefits of national law, and to 
use all the resources of the community : 

" ' From the equality of all nations really sovereign and inde- 
pendent, it is a principle of the voluntary law of nations, that 
no nation can control another in its internal municipal legisla- 
tion.' If we consider the business of confiscation according 
to the immemorial usages of Great Britain, we will find that 
the law and practice of that country support my position. In 
the wars which respect revolutions which have taken plac<», in 
that island — life, fortune, goods, debts, and everything else 
were confiscated. The crimen Icbscr majestatis^ as it is called, 
involved everything. Every possible punishment has been 
inflicted on suffering humanitj^ that it could endure, by the 
party which had the superiority in those wars, over the defeat- 
ed party, which was charged M'ith rebellion. 

" What would have been the consequences, sir, if we had 
been conquered? Were we not fighting against that majesty ? 
Would the justice of our opposition have been considered? 
The most horrid forfeitures, confiscations, and attainders, would 
have been pronounced against us. Consider their history, 
from the time of William the First till this day. Were not 
his Normans gratified with the confiscation of the richest 
estates in England ? Read the excessive cruelties, attainders, 
and confiscations, of that reign. England depopulated — its in- 
habitants stripped of the dearest privileges of humanity — de- 
graded with the most ignominious badges of bondage — and 
totally deprived of the power of resistance to usurpation and 
tyranny. 

** This inability continued to the time of Henry the Eighth. 
In his reign, the business of confiscation and attainder, made 
considerable havoc. After his reign, some stop was put to that 
effusion of blood which preceded and happened under it. Rec- 
ollect the sad and lamentable effects of the York and Lancas- 
trian wars. Remember the rancorous hatred and inveterate 
detestations of contending factions — the distinction of the 
white and red roses. To come a little lower — what happened 
in that island in the rebellions of seventeen hundred and fif- 
teen and seventeen hundred and forty-five ? If we had been 
conquered, would not our men have shared the fate of the peo- 
ple of Ireland? A great part of that island was confiscated, 
though the Irish people thought themselves engaged in a laud- 
able cause. What confiscation and punishments were inflicted 



5844 wirt's life of 

in Scotland ? The plains pf Culloden, and the neighbouring 
gibbets, would show you. I thank Heaven that the spirit of 
liberty under the protection of the Almighty, saved us from 
experiencing so hard a destiny. 

"But had we been subdued, would not every right have been 
wrested" from us? What right would have been saved? 
Would debts have been saved ? Would it not be absurd to 
save debts, while they should burn, hang, and destroy? Be- 
fore we can decide with precision, we are to consider the dan- 
gers we should have been exposed to, had we been subdued. 
After presenting to your view this true picture of what would 
have been our situation, had we been subjugated — surely a 
correspondent right will be found, growing out of the law of 
nations in our favour. 

" Had our subjugation been effected, and we pleaded for par- 
don — represented that we defended the most valuable rights of 
human nature, and thought they were wrong — would our peti- 
tion have availed ? I feel myself impelled, from what has 
passed, to ask this question. I would not wish to have lived 
too see the sad scenes we should have experienced. 

" Needy avarice, and savage cruelty, would have had full 
scope. Hungry Germans^ blood-thirsty Indians, and nations 
of another colour, would have been let loose upon us. The 
sad effects of such warfare have had their full influence on a 
number of our fellow-citizens. Sir, if you had seen the sad 
scenes which I have known ; if you had seen the simple but 
tranquil felicity of helpless and unoffending women and chil- 
dren, in little log huts on the frontiers, disturbed and destro^yed 
by the sad effects of British warfare and Indian butchery, your 
soul would have been strucJc with horror ! Even those help- 
less women and children were the objects of the most shock- 
ing barbarity. 

" Give me leave again to refer to Vattel, p. 9 : — ' Nations be- 
ing free, independent, and equal, and having a right to judge 
according to the dictates of conscience, of what is to be done 
in order to fulfil its duties ; the effect of all this is, the produ- 
cing, at least externally and among men, a perfect equality of 
rights between nations, in the administration of their affairs, 
and the pursuit of their pretensions, without regard to the in- 
trinsic justice of their conduct, of which others have no right 
to form a definitive judgment: so that what is permitted in 
one, is also permitted in the other ; and they ought to be con- 
sidered in human society as having an equal right.' 

"If it be allowed to the British nation to put to death, to for- 
feit and confiscate debts and everything else, may we not (hav- 
ing an equal right) confiscate — not life, for we never desire it — 



PATRICK HENRY. 245 

but that which is the common object of confiscation — property^ 
goods^ and debts, which strengthen ourselves and weaken our 
enemies? I trust that this short recapitulation of events 
shows, that if there ever was in the history of man a case re- 
quiring the full use of all human means, it was our case in the 
late contest ; and we were therefore warranted to confiscate 
the British debts." 

He now takes another ground to establish the confiscation; 
i shall give his whole argument on this point in his own 
words : — 

" I beg leave to add that these debts are lost on another prin- 
dple. By the dissolution of the British government, America 
went into a state of nature — on the dissolution of that of which 
we had been members, there being no government antecedent, 
we went necessarily into a state of nature. To prove this, I 
need only refer to the Declaration of Independence, pronoun- 
ced on the fourth day of July, seventeen hundred and seventy- 
six, and our state constitution." — Here Mr. Henry read part 
of the constitution. — " It recites many instances of misrule 
by the king of England — it asserts the right and expediency 
of dissolving the British government, and going into a state 
of nature ; or, in other words, to establish a new government. 
The right of dissolving it and forming a new system, had pre- 
ceded the fourth day of July, seventeen hundred and seventy 
six. 

*' A recapitulation of the events of the tyrannical acts of gov- 
ernment, would demonstrate a right to dissolve it. But I may 
go farther, and even say, that the act of parliament which de- 
clared us out of the king's protection, dissolved it. For what 
is government? It is an express or implied compact between 
the rulers and ruled, stipulating reciprocal protection and obe- 
dience. That protection was withdrawn, solemnly withdrawn 
from us. Of consequence, obedience ceased to be due. Our 
municipal rights were taken away by one blow. Municipal 
obligations and government were also taken away by the same 
blow. 

" Well, then, there being no antecedent government, we re- 
turned into a state of nature. Unless we did so, our new com- 
pact of government could only be a usurpation. In a state of 
nature there is no legal lien in the person or property of any 
one. If you are not clear of every antecedent engagement, 
what is the legality or strength of the present constitution of 
government? If any antecedent engagements are to bind, 
how far are they to reach ? You had no right to form a new 
government, if the old system existed ; and if it did not exist, 
you were necessarily and inevitably in a state of nature. 

3P 



246 wirt's life of 

"In my humble opinion, J3y giving validity to sucli claims, 
you destroy the very idea of the right to form a new govern 
ment. Vattel calls government the totality of persons, estates, 
and effects, formed by every individual of the new society, and 
that totality represented by the governing power. How can 
the totality exist while an antecedent right exists elsewhere ? 
See Grotius, page 4, which I have already read, and note 29 : 
because the design and good of civil society necessarily re- 
quire, that the natural and acquired rights of each membei 
should admit of limitations several ways, and to a certain de- 
gree by the authority of him or them, in whose hands the sov* 
ereign authority is lodged. When we formed a new govern- 
ment, did there exist any authority that limited our rights? 
How can the totality exist, if any other person or persons have 
an existing claim upon you ? 

" It appears to me, that that equality which is involved in a 
state of nature cannot exist while such claim exists. The 
court will recollect what I have already read out of Vattel, in 
sections 15 and 18. The equality here ascribed to independ- 
ent nations is equally ascribed to men in a state of nature. A 
moral society of persons cannot exist without this absolute 
equality. The existence of individuals in a state of nature, 
depends in like manner upon, and is inseparable from such 
equality. 

" Rights, as before-mentioned, Vattel, pp. 8 and 9, are di- 
vided into internal and external : of external rights, he makes 
the distinction of perfect and imperfect. I beseech your hon- 
ours to fix this distinction in your minds. The perfect external 
right only is accompanied with the right of constraint. The 
imperfect right loses that quality, and leaves it to the party to 
comply or not to comply with it. When the former govern- 
ment was dissolved, the American people became indebted to 
nobody. You either owe everything or nothing — and every 
contract and engagement must be done away, if any. 

" In a state of nature you are free and equal. But how are 
you free, if another have a lien on your body ? Where is 
your freedom, or your equality with that person, who has the 
right of constraining you ? This right of constraint implies a 
complete authority over you, but not however to enslave you. 
This constraint is always adequate to the right or obligation. 
Where can you find the possibility of this equality which na- 
ture gives her sons, if we admit an existing right of constraint? 

"If it be a fact, that on the dissolution of the government 
we did enter into a state of nature, (and that we did, I humbly 
judge, cannot be denied, as at that time no government existed 
at all,) it destroys all claim to one farthing. This will be found 



PATRICK HENRY. 347 

to be true, as well upon the ground of equity and good con- 
science as in law, when it is considered, that when we went 
into a state of nature, the means of paying debts were taken 
away from us by them ; because, so far as they had power over 
us, they prevented us from getting money to pay debts. They 
interdicted us from the pursuit of profitable commerce ; from 
getting gold and silver, the only things they would take — they 
unjustly drove us to this extremity. By the concession of the 
worthy gentlemen, their attack upon us was unjust. 

" But then, debts are not subject to confiscation, say gentle- 
men, because there were no inquests, no office found for the 
commonwealth. Has a debt an ear-mark ? Is it tangible or 
visible? Has it any discriminating quality ? Unless tangible 
or visible, how is it to be ascertained or distinguished? What 
does an inquest mean ? A solemn inquiry by a jury, by ocular 
examination, with other proofs. If an inquest of office were 
to be had of land, a jury could tell the lines and boundaries of 
it, because they may be distinguished from others, and its 
identity may thereby be ascertained. If a horse be the object 
of inquiry, he can be easily distinguished from any other horse. 

" In like manner every other article of visible property may 
be subject to inquests ; but such a thing as an inquest of a debt 
never existed, as far as my legal knowledge extends. What 
are to be the consequences, if this proceeding be requisite ? 
You must set up a court of inquisition, summon the whole na- 
tion, and ask every man how much do you owe ? This would 
be productive of endless confusion, perplexity and expense, 
without the desired effisct. The laws of war and of nations 
require no more than that the sovereign power should openly 
signify its will, that the debts be forfeited. There is no par- 
ticular forensic form necessary. The question here is not, 
whether this confiscation be traversed in all the forms of 
municipal regulations. There is a question between Great 
Britain and America similar to that between Alexander and the 
Thebans. Has the sovereign signified his pleasure that debts 
be remitted 1 

" A sign is completely sufficient, if it be understood by the 
people. There is a necessity of thus speaking the legislative 
will, that the other party may know it, and retaliate ; for what 
is allowed to one, is to both parties. This was different from 
the nature of a solemn war. War is lawful or unlawful, ac- 
cording to the manner of conducting it. In the prosecution of 
a lawful solemn war, it is necessary that you do not depart from 
certain rules of moderation, honour, and humanity, but act 
according to the usual practice of belligerant powers. Did the 
mother-country conduct the war against us in this manner I 



24.8 

We did openly say, we mean to confiscate your debts, and 
modify them, because they have lost their perfect external 
quality — they are imperfect — we claim that right, as a sover- 
eign people, over that species of your property. 

" Sir, it was not done in a corner. It was understood by 
our enemies. They had a eight to retaliate on any species of 
our property they could find. The right of retaliation, or just 
retortion, for equivalent damage on any part of an enemy's 
property, is permitted to every nation. What right has the 
British nation (for if the nation have not the right, none of its peo- 
ple have) to demand a breach of faith in the American govern- 
ment to its citizens ? I have already mentioned the engage 
ment of the government with its citizens respecting the paper 
money — If you take it, it shall be money. Shall it be judged 
now not to be money? Shall this compact be broken for the 
sake of the British nation ? No, sir, the language of national 
law is otherwise. 

"Sir, the laws of confiscation and paper-money made to- 
gether one system, connected and sanctioned by the legislature, 
on which depended once the fate our country, and on which 
depend now the happiness, the ease, and comfort of thousands 
of your fellow-citizens. Will it not be a breach of the com- 
pact with your people, to say that the money is not to keep up 
its original standard in the quality given it by law ? What were 
the effects of this system? What would have been the effects, 
had your citizens been apprized that British debts must be 
paid ? Would they have taken the money ? Would they have de- 
posited the money in the loan-office if they had been warned by 
law, that they must deposite it, subject to the future regulations 
of peace; that it should not release them from the creditors? 

" However right it may appear now to decry the paper- 
money, it would have been fatal then ; for America might have 
perished, without the aid and effect of that medium. Your 
citizens, trusting to this compact, submitted to a number of 
things almost intolerable — impressments and violences on their 
property — it encouraged them to exert themselves in defence 
of their property against the enemy during the war. If the 
debt in the declaration mentioned be recovered, the compact is 
subverted, as respecting the paper-money. And this subver- 
sion is to take effect for the interest of those men, whom, by 
all laws human and divine, we were obliged to consider as en- 
emies ; men who were obliged to comply with the regulations 
and requisitions of their king ; and our people will have been 
labouring, not for themselves, but for the benefit of the British 
subject. 

" When a vessel is in danger in a storm, those who abide on 



I PATRICK HENRY. 349 

toard of her, and encounter the dangers of the sea to save her, 
are allowed some little compensation for salvage, for their 
fidelity and gallantry in endeavouring to prevent her loss ; 
while those who abandon her are entitled to nothing. But, in 
opposition to this wise and politic principle, we, who have 
withstood the storms and dangers, receive no compensation ; 
but those who left the political ship, and joined those on the 
other side of the water who wished to sink her, and who caused 
her to fight eight long years for her preservation, shall come in 
at last, and get their full share of this vessel, and yet will have 
been exonerated from every charge. 

"For whom, then, were the people of America engaged in 
war? Not for themselves, I am sure — the property that they 
saved will not be for themselves, but for those whom they had 
a right to call enemies. I am not willing to ascribe to the 
meanest American the love of money, or desire of eluding the 
payment of his debts, as the motive of engaging in the war. 
No, sir. He had nobler and better views. But he thinks him- 
self well entitled to those debts, from the laws and usages of 
nations, as a compensation for the injuries he has sustained. 
There is a sad drawback on this property saved. A national 
debt for seventeen years, considerable taxes, which were pro- 
fusely laid during the war on lands and slaves ; and, since the 
peace, we have been loaded with a heavy taxation*. I know 
that I advocate this cause on a very advantageous ground, when 
I speak of the right of salvage. 

" The cargo on board the wrecked vessel belongs to the 
British, it will have been saved for them ! but the salvage is 
due to us only. If you take it on the ground of interest — you 
may hold as a pledge — you may retain for salvage. If you 
take it on the scale of the common law, or of national law — • 
you may oppose damages to debts — retain the debts, to retri- 
bute and compensate for the injuries they have done^ you. I 
have now got over and I trust established the first point ; that 
is that debts in common wars are subject to forfeiture, and 
much more so in a revolution war like the American war." 

These copious extracts from the report on Mr. Henry's first 
point are deemed necessary to give the reader an idea of his 
mode of argumentation, so far as it can be furnished by this 
report. It would be trespassing on the indulgence of the 
proprietor of the manuscript, (which has never been published,) 
and trespassing too, perhaps, on the patience of that portion 
of my readers who can find no enjoyment in legal discussion, 
to pursue any farther this extended mode of analysis. Having 
established his^ first position, he presents his next point thus :^ 
" My next point is, that the British debts being so forfeited (as 



250 WIRT S LIFE OT 

I conceive) can only be revived by the treaty ; and unless they 
be so revived, they are gone for ever. I will then consider how 
this matter stands under the treaty." 

He proceeds then to show by authority, the rules by which 
treaties are to be construed ; and demonstrates, that a treaty 
can confer no benefit unless it be mutually observed with good 
faith ; that perfidy on either side is a forfeiture of all its advan- 
tages ; that the stipulations of a treaty are in the nature of con- 
ditions precedent ; that a breach on either side dissolves the 
covenant altogether, and places the parties on the general 
ground which they occupied before the treaty ; that Great Brit- 
ain had violated the treaty, in the moment of its ratification, by 
carrying off our slaves, and detaining with an armed force those 
posts of which she had stipulated the immediate surrender ; 
that the pretence of her having acted thus as a retaliatory 
measure for the non-payment of the debts, was an insult to 
common understanding, because she began her infractions be- 
fore any experiment had been made of a recovery of the debts ; 
that the notion of a reprisal, preceding any injury — and a re- 
taliation, in advance, of any wrong on the opposite side, was 
so far from mitigating her offence, that it was a daring insult on 
the honour and good faith of this nation ! Having, by a series 
of authorities directly in point, established the right of the 
American, nation to regard the treaty as abolished by any per- 
fidious infraction of it, on the part of Great Britain, he shows 
next, that those infractions were established by the pleadings 
in the cause ; because the defendant, by his several pleas, had 
specified those infractions, and the plaintiff, by demurring tc 
the pleas, had admitted the truth of their averments. 

Great Britain, then, as a nation, having by her own perfidy 
forfeited all right to insist upon the treaty, and that treaty, as 
between the nations, being annulled, the next question was, 
whether any individual of the British nation «could claim any 
advantage under the treaty ? This he shows could not be 
done, because in making the treaty, the sovereigns of the two 
nations acted for all the individuals of their respective nations ; 
the individuals were bound by all the acts of those sovereigns, 
whether in making or abolishing a treaty. " Here," said he, 
*' are two moral persons, Great Britain and America, making a 
contract. 

The plaintiff claims and the defendant defends under 
and through them ; and if either nation or moral person 
has no right to benefits from such contract, individuals claim 
ing under them can have none. The plaintiff then claims un- 
der his nation, but if that nation have committed perfidy re- 
specting the observance of the compact, no right can be car- 



PATRICK HENRY. t5l 

ned therefrom to the plaintiff. It puts him back in the same 
situation he was in before the treaty." 

He shows the absurdity of considering the treaty as annul- 
led, in relation to all the individuals, in their collective char- 
acter of a nation, and yet as in full force for the benefit of each 
individual separately; for if this plaintiff had a right to all the 
beneficial effects of the treaty, every man in England had the 
same right ; and he cites and reads from Vattel, a conclusive 
authority, to show, that the conventional law of nations could 
take its effect only from universal right, extending equally to 
all the citizens or individuals of a nation. 

But to say that America had a right to consider the treaty 
as void against all the individuals of the British nation, collect- 
ively^ while each and every individual of that nation separ- 
ately, could enforce it upon her, was to offer to the understand- 
ing a paradoxical absurdity, as insulting to common sense, as 
the conduct of Great Britain had been to the honour of the 
American nation. 

He contended further on this point, that if the treaty had 
been observed by Great Britain, and were of consequence still 
obligatory, it did not and could not operate where moneys had 
been actually paid into the treasury under the laws of the 
state ; for the provision of the treaty is, " that creditors on 
either side should meet with no lawful impediment to the re- 
covery of all bona fide debts heretofore contracted." The de- 
fendant, he said, having paid the money into the treasury ac- 
cording to the act of assembly, and the truth of the pay- 
ment being admitted in the record, this article of the treaty 
could not support the plaintiff's claim. 

" To derive a benefit from the treaty, the plaintiff must de- 
mand a bona fide debt ; that is, a debt bona fide due. The 
word debt implies that the thing is due ; for if it be not 
due, how can it be a debt? To give to these words, all debts 
heretofore contracted, a strictly literal sense, would be to au- 
thorize a renewed demand for debts which had been actually 
paid off to the creditor ; for these were certainly within the 
words of the treaty, being debts heretofore contracted : — to 
avoid this absurd and dishonest consequence, you must look 
at the intention of the thing ; and the intention certainly was 
to embrace those cases where there had not been a legal pay- 
ment. I ask," said he, " why a payment made in gold and 
silver is a legal payment? Because the coin of those metals 
is made current by the laws of this country. If paper be 
made current by the same auithority, why should not a pay- 
ment in it be equally valid ? 

"The British subject cannot demand payment, because 1 

I 



wirt's life of 

confront his demand with a receipt. "Why will a receipt dis 
charge in any instance ? — because it is founded on the laws of 
the country. A receipt given in consequence of a payment in 
coin, is a legal discharge, only because the laws of the court- 
try make it so. I ask then, why a receipt given in conse- 
quence of a payment into the treasury, be not of equal valid- 
ity, since it has precisely the same foundation ? It is expressly 
constituted a discharge by a legislature having competent au- 
thority. This debt, therefore, having been legally paid by the 
contractor, was not due from him at the time of making the 
treaty, and therefore is not within the intention of that instru- 
ment. 

"But, say the gentlemen on the other side, the one payment 
has the consent of the creditor, and the other has not : he who 
paid coin lias the creditor's consent to the discharge, but he 
who paid money into the treasury wants it. Have we not sat- 
isfied this honourable court, that the governing power had a 
right to put itself in the place of the British subjects? Hav- 
ing had an unquestionable right to confiscate, sequester, or 
modify those debts as they pleased, they had an equally indu- 
bitable right to substitute themselves in the stead of the plain- 
tiff, otherwise those authorities have been quoted in vain." 

He then cites authorities to prove, that the law of the place 
governs the contract; and concludes that the payment into the 
treasury having in this instance been made in consequence of 
a law of this commonwealth, which was strictly consonant 
with the laws of nations, and which had declared that such 
payment should operate as a complete and final discharge^ 
this was not a subsisting deht, within the contemplation of the 
treaty, and remained therefore, wholly unaffected by it. 

" The next question was, whether this court could take no- 
tice of this infraction of the treaty, on the part of Great Brit- 
ain, and found their judgment upon it. On this question he 
observes that the court were not called upon to step out of 
their appropriate sphere, in order to invade the province of 
the jury by trying facts ; the facts were all agreed by the plead- 
ings ; the court were merely called upon to say what was the 
law arising on those facts. 

" The existence or non-existence of the treaty, was a legal 
inference from the facts agreed ; which the courts alone were 
competent to decide. The plaintiff himself h^ forced this 
question on the court, by relying in his replication on the 
treaty, as restoring his right to recover this debt. He sets up 
his right under this instrument expressly, and then questions 
the jurisdiction of the court to decide upon the instrument ! 
The treaty, quoad hoc, is the covenant of the parties in this 



PATRICK heNry. 253 

flit : the question presented by the pleadings is, whether the 
plaintiff who, by that covenant, has taken upon himself the 
performance of a precedent condition, can claim any benefit 
under it, until he shall show that this precedent condition has 
been performed. 

" On this question," said he, " the gentleman's argument is, 
that the court have no power to decide on the construction of 
the covenant, which he himself has brought before them ; that 
they have nothing to do with the dependance or independence 
of the stipulations or the reciprocal rights of the parties, to 
claim under the covenant, without showing a previous perform- 
ance on their respective parts ! 

" i/e, on the contrary, insisted that, under the constitution 
of the United States, the question belonged, peculiarly and 
exclusively^ to the judicial department ; that by the constitu- 
tion it was expressly provided, that the judicial power should 
extend to all cases arising" under treaties ; that the law of 
treaties embraced the whole extent of natural and national law • 
that the constitution therefore, by referring all cases arising un- 
der treaties to the judiciary, had of necessity invested them 
with the power of appealing to that code of laws, by which 
alone the construction, the operation, the efficacy, the legal ex- 
istence or non-existence of treaties, must be tested : and by 
this code they were told in the most emphatic terms, that he 
who violates one article of a treaty, releases the other party 
from the performance of any part of it : that the reference of 
all cases arising under treaties, to the judicial department, car 
ried with it every power near or remote, direct or collateral 
which was essential to a fair and just decision of those cases 
that in every such case, the very first question was, Is there a 
treaty or not? — not whether there has been a treaty — but 
whether there is an existing- obligatory, operative treaty. 

" To decide this question, the court must bring the facts to 
the standard of the laws of nations ; and by this standard it 
had been shown, that in the case at bar, there existed no treaty 
from which a British subject could claim any benefit. That if 
the judicial department had not the power of deciding this 
question, there was no department in the American govern- 
ment which did possess it : the state governments have nothing 
to do with it — congress cannot touch the subject — they may 
indeed declare war for a violation ; but a nation was not to be 
forced to this extremity on every occasion ; there were other 
modes of redress, short of a declaration of war, to which na- 
tions had a right to resort ; and one of them, as he had showiv 
was the power of withholding from the perfidious violator (& 
a treaty, those benefits which he claimed under it» 

22 



254 wirt's life op 

"Now congress could not by a law declare a treaty void — it 
is not among those grants of power which the constitution 
makes to them ; they cannot, therefore, meddle with the sub- 
ject in any other way than by a declaration of war; neither 
can the president and senate touch it. They can 7naJ£e treaties ; 
but the constitution gives them no power to expound a treaty ; 
much less to declare it void; they can only unite with the 
house of representatives, in punishing an infraction by a dec- 
laration of war. To the judiciary alone then, belongs this 
pacific power of withholding legal benefits, claimed under a 
treaty, because of the mala fides of the party claiming them. 

" Now what will be the situation of this country, compared 
with that of Great Britain, if you deny this power to the judi- 
ciary ? If you have not observed the treaty with good faith, 
and go to England, claiming any benefit under the treaty, there 
is a power there, called royal prerogative, which will tell you — 
no — go home and act honestly, and you shall have your rights 
under the treaty. 

"Your breach of faith will not drive them to a declaration 
of war — there is a power there which obtains redress by with- 
holding your rights, until you act with good faith : but where 
is the reciprocal and corresponding power in our government, 
if it be not in the judiciary ? It is nowhere ; we have no 
redress short of a declaration of war. Is this one of the pre- 
cious fruits of the adoption of the federal constitution, to bind 
us hand and foot with the fetters of technicality, and leave us 
no way of bursting them asunder, but by a declaration of war, 
and the eflfusion of human blood ! It was never intended. 
The wisdom and virtue which framed the constitution could 
never have intended to place the country in this humiliating 
and awful predicament." 

"Give to this power of deciding on treaties, which is dele- 
gated to the federal judiciary, a liberal construction — give them 
all the incidental powers necessary to carry it into effect — 
open to them the whole region of natural and national law, 
which furnishes the only rule of expounding those national 
compacts, called treaties, and your government is unmutilated, 
its measure of power is full up to the exigences of the nation, 
and you treat on equal terms : but upon the opposite construc- 
tion, much better would it be that America should have no 
treaties at all, than that having them, she should want those 
means of enforcement and redress which all other nations 
possess.'* 

Having thus established that debts are subject to confisca- 
tion in common wars, and much more so in the war of the rev- 
olution — that Virginia was an independent nation, and as such. 



PATRICK HENRY. 255 

competent to the exercise of this right of eminent domain — of 
taking to herself the debts of her enemies — that she had in 
fact exercised this right, and that this debt had, imder one of 
her laws of that character, been legally discharged — that the 
treaty had no effect in reviving the claim, because the treaty 
had been annulled by the infractions of it on the part of Great 
Britain — and because if it had not, this was not a subsisting 
debt, within the purview of the treaty — and finally, that the 
court's jurisdiction extended to every question touching the 
consequence or annulment of treaties. 

He said he had now finished his own view of the subject, 
and should have taken his seat, but for the necessity of giving 
a 'particular answer to the various objections to these princi- 
ples, which had been so ably urged by the counsel for the 
plaintiff. 

In this part of his subject he shows the most masterly acute- 
ness, address, and vigour. A gentleman who was present, (the 
late Mr. Hardin Burnley,) has described some of the circum- 
stances of his manner, with a very interesting minuteness : — 
"Mr. Henry," he said, "had taken ample notes of the argu- 
ments of his adversaries : the people would give him his own 
time to examine his notes, and select the argument or remark 
that he meant to make the subject of his comments, observing 
in these pauses the most profound silence. If the answer 
he was about to give was a short one, he would give it without 
removing his spectacles from his nose — but if he was ever 
seen to give his spectacle a cant to the top of his wig, it was a 
declaration of war, and his adversaries must stand clear." 

I propose to give a few specimens only of his mode of an- 
swering the arguments of the opposing counsel. It had been 
urged by them that the laws of nations had declardlS only the 
estate of an alien enemy liable to confiscation — but that debts 
were mere rights — choses in action — and therefore not of a 
confiscable character. His answer to this is a happy mixture 
of ridicule and argument. It is short, and I shall give it in his 
own words : — 

" But a chose in action is not liable to forfeiture. Why ? 
Because it is too terrible to be done. There is such a thing as 
straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. Things much 
more terrible have been done — things, from which our nature, 
where it has any pretensions to be pure and correct, must re- 
coil with horror. Show me those laws which forfeit your life, 
attaint your blood, and beggar your wife and children. Those 
sanguinary and inhuman laws, to which every thing valuable 
must yield, are to be found in the code of that people, under 
whom the plaintiff now claims. 



256 wirt's life of 

" Is it so terrible to confiscate debts, when they forfeit life, 
and corrupt the very source of your blood ? Though every 
other thing dear to humanity is forfeitable, yet debts, it seems, 
must be spared ! Debts are too sacred to be touched? It is a 
mercantile idea that worships Mammon instead of God. A 
chose in action shall pass — it is without your reach. What . 
authority can they adduce in support of such conclusive pre- 
eminence for debts? No political or human institution has 
placed them above other things. If debt be the most sacred of 
all earthly obligations, I am uninformed from whence it has de- | 
rived that eminence. The principle is to be found in the day- 
books, journals and legers of merchants ; not in the writings 
or reasonings of the wise and well-informed — the enlightened 
instructers of mankind. 

" Can any gentlemen show me any instance, where the life 
or property of a gentleman or plebeian in England is forfeited, 
and yet his debts spared? The state can claim debts due to 
one guilty of high treason. Are they not subject to confisca- 
tion? I concur in that sound principle, that good faith is es- 
sential to the happiness of mankind ; that its want stops all 
human intercourse, and renders us miserable. This principle 
is permanent, ar-d universal. Look to what point of the com- 
pass you wiw, you will find it pervading all nations. Who 
does not set down its sacred influence as the only thing that 
comforts human life ? Does the plaintiff claim through good 
faith ? How does he derive his claim ? Through perfidy : 
through a polluted channel. Everything of that kind would 
have come better from our side of the question, than from theirs." 

Mr. Ronald had insisted strenuously, that there could be no 
forfeiture or escheat without the inquest of a jury ; and that no 
act of the4egislature had, in fact, directly forfeited these debts. 
In answer to this, Mr. Henry says, " but the gentleman has 
observed, that neither the declaration of the legislature, by the 
act of 1779, that the British subjects had become aliens, and 
their property vested in the commonwealth, nor any other act 
passed on the subject, could divest the debts out of the British 
creditors. It cannot' be done without the solemnity of an in- 
quiry by jury. The debt of A or B, cannot be given to C, 
without this solemnity. 

" Is the little legality of forms, which are necessary when 
you speak of estates and titles, requisite on such mighty occa- 
sions as these? When the fate of a nation is concerned, you 
are to speak the language of nature. When your very exist- 
ence is at stake, are you to speak the technical language of 
books, and to be confined to the limited rules of technical crit- 
icism ? to those tricks and quirks — those little twists and twirls 



PATRICK HENRY. 267 

of low chicanery and sophistry, which are so beneficial to 
professional men? Alexander said, in the style of that mighty 
man, to the Thessalians, ^You are free frorn the Thebans,^ and 
the debts they owed them were thereby remitted. 

" Every other sovereign has the same right to use the same 
natural, manly, and laconic language ; not when he is victori- 
ous only, but in every situation, if he be in a state of hostility 
with other nations. The acts use not the language of techni- 
cality, they speak not oi releases, discharges dind. acquittances ; 
but they speak the legislative will, in simple speech, to the 
human understanding — a style better suited to the purpose, 
than the turgid and pompous phraseology of many great 
writers." 

Mr. Ronald, who was a native of Scotland, and at the com- 
mencement of the revolutionary war at least, had been sus- 
pected of being not very warm in the American cause, had 
urged the objection to the national competency of Virginia, at 
the time of the passage of those laws of confiscation and for- 
feiture, on which the defendant relied ; and in the course of his 
observations, had unfortunately used the remark, that Virginia 
was, at that time, nothing more than a revolted colony. 

When Mr. Henry came to notice this remark, he gave his 
spectacles the war cant : — " But another observation," said he, 
*'was made ; that by the law of nations we had not a right to 
legislate on the subject of British debts — we were not an inde- 
pendent nation — and I thought," said he, raising himself aloft, 
while his frame dilated itself beyond the ordinary size, " that I 
heard the word — revolt /" 

At this word, he turned upon Mr. Ronald his piercing eye, 
and knit his brows at him, with an expression of indignation 
and contempt, which seemed almost to annihilate him. It was 
like a stroke of lightning. Mr. Ronald shrunk from the with- 
ering look : and, pale and breathless, cast down his eyes, 
" seeming," says my informant, " to be in quest of an auger- 
hole, by which he might drop through the floor, and escape for 
ever from mortal sight." 

Mr. Henry perceived his suff'ering, and his usual good-nature 
immediately returned to him. He raised his eyes gently tow- 
ard the court, and shaking his head slowly, with an expres- 
sion of regret, added, "I wish I had not heard it : for though 
innocently meant, (and I am sure that it was so, from the char- 
acter of the gentleman who mentioned it,) yet the sound dis- 
pleases me — it is unpleasant." Mr. Ronald breathed again, 
and looked up, and his generous adversary dismissed the topic, 
to resume it no more. 

It may give the reader some idea of the amplitude of this 

22* 



258 wirt's life of 

argument, when he is told that Mr. Henry was engaged three 
days successively in its delivery ; and some faint conception oi 
the enchantment which he threw over it, when he learns that 
although it turned entirely on questions of law, yet the audi- 
ence, mixed as it was, seemed so far from being wearied, that 
they followed him throughout with increased enjoyment. The 
room continued full to the last ; and such was the " listening 
silence" with which he was heard, that not a syllable that he 
littered is believed to have been lost. 

When he finally sat down, the concourse rose with a general 
murmur of admiration ; the scene resembled the breaking up 
and dispersion of a great theatrical assembly, which had been 
enjoying for the first time, the exhibition of some new and 
splendid drama : the speaker of the house of delegates was at 
length able to command a quorum for business ; and every 
quarter of the city, and, at length, every part of the state, was 
filled with the echoes of Mr. Henry's eloquent speech. 

His practice during these last years, of which we are now 
speaking, was confined pretty generally to cases of conse- 
quence. He did not like the profession, and was not willing 
to embark in any case for the ordinary fees. I have an inter- 
esting sketch of him, in his professional character, during 
those years, from the same elegant pen, which in a former 
page, exhibits the parallel between him and Mr. Lee in 1784 : 
it is as follows : — 

" At the bar, Mr. Henry was eminently successful. When 
I saw him there, he must, from the course of his life, which 
had been chiefly political, have become somewhat rusty in the 
learning of his profession : yet I considered him as a good 
lawyer : hfe seemed to be well acquainted with the rules and 
canons of property. He would not, indeed, undergo the 
drudgery necessary for complicated business ; yet I am told, 
that in the British debt cause, he astonished the public not less 
by the matter than the manner of his speech. 

" It was however as a criminal lawyer that his eloquence had 
the fairest scope, and in that character I have seen him. He 
was perfect master of the passions of his auditory, whether in 
the tragic or comic line. The tones of his voice, to say noth- 
ing of his matter and gesture, were insinuated into the feel- 
ings of his hearers, in a manner that baffles all description. 
It seemed to operate by mere sympathy ; and by his tones 
alone, it seemed to me, that he could make you cry or laugh at 
pleasure. I will endeavour to give you some account of this 
tragic and comic eflfect in two instances, which I witnessed. 

"About the year 1792, one Holland killed a young man in 
Botetourt. The young man was popular, and lived, I think, 



PATRICK HENRY. S59 

with Mr. King, a wealthy merchant in Fincastle, who employed 
Mr. John Brackenridge to assist in the prosecution of Holland. 
This Holland had gone up from the county of Louisa as a 
schoolmaster, but had turned out badly, and was unpopular. 
The killing was in the night, and was generally believed to be 
murder. He was the son of one Doctor Holland, who was 
yet living in Louisa, and had been one of Mr. Henry's juvenile 
friends and acquaintances. 

"It was chiefly at the instance of the father, and for a very 
moderate fee, that Mr. Henry undertook to go out to the district 
court of Greenbrier, to defend the prisoner. Such were the 
prejudices there, that the people had openly and repeatedly 
declared that even Patrick Henry need not come to defend 
Holland, unless he brought a jury with him. On the day of 
trial, the courthouse was crowded. I did not move from my 
seat for fourteen hours ; and had no wish to do so. The ex- 
amination of the witnesses took up great part of the time, and 
the lawyers were probably exhausted. Brackenridge was elo- 
quent; but Henry left no dry eye in the courthouse. 

" The case I believe was murder ; though, possibly, man' 
slaughter only. Mr. Henry laid hold of this possibility with 
such effect as to make all forget that Holland had killed the 
storekeeper at all ; and presented the deplorable case of the 
jury killing Holland, an innocent man. By that force of de- 
scription which he possessed in so wonderful a degree, he ex- 
hibited, as it were, at the clerk's table, old Holland and his 
wife, who were then in Louisa ; but the drawing was so pow- 
erful, and so true to nature, that we seemed to see them before 
us, and to hear them asking of the jury, * Where is our son? 
"What have you done with him V 

"All this was done in a manner so solemn and touching, and 
a tone so irresistible, that it was impossible for the stoutest 
heart not to take sides with the criminal : as for the jury, they 
lost sight of the murder they were trying, and wept most pro- 
fusely, with old Holland and his wife, whom Mr. Henry painted, 
and perhaps proved to be very respectable. During the ex- 
amination of the evidence, the bloody clothes had been brought 
in. Mr. Henry objected to their exhibition, and applied most 
forcibly and pathetically Antony's remark on Cesar's wounds, 
on those dumb mouths which would raise the stones of Rome 
to mutiny. 

" He urged that this sight would totally deprive the jury of 
their judgment, which would be merged in iheh feelings. The 
court were divided, and the motion fell. The result of the 
trial was, that after the retirement of a half or quarter of an 
hour, the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty ; but on being" 



j560 wirt's life of 

reminded by the court that they might find a decree of homi 
cide, inferior to murder, they altered their verdict to guilty of 
manslaughter.'''' 

" Mr. Henry was not less successful in the comic line, when 
it became necessary to resort to it. You have no doubt heard 
how he defeated John Hook, by raising the cry of See/ against 
him. I will give you a similar instance. In the year 1792, 
there were many suits on the south side of James river, for 
inflicting Lynch's law ; thirty-nine lashes, inflicted without trial 
or law, on a mere suspicion of guilt, which could not be regu- 
larly proved. This lawless practice, which, sometimes by the 
order of a magistrate, sometimes without, prevailed extensively 
in the upper counties on James river, took its name from the 
gentleman who set the first example of it. 

"A verdict of five hundred pounds had been given in Prince 
Edward district court, in a case of this kind. This alarmed the 
defendant in the next case, who employed Mr. Henry to defend 
him. The case was, that a wagoner and the plaintiff" were 
travelling to Richmond together, when the wagoner knocked 
down a turkey, and put it into his wagon. Complaint was 
made to the defendant, a justice of the peace ; both the parties 
were taken up, and the wagoner agreed to take a whipping 
rather than be sent to jail : but the plaintiff refused : the jus- 
tice, however, gave him also a small flagellation ; and for this 
the suit was brought. 

" The plaintiff, by way of taking off the force of the defence, 
insisted that he was wholly innocent of the act committed. 
Mr. Henry on the contrary contended, that he was a party 
present, aiding and assisting. In the course of his remarks, 
he expressed himself thus: — 'But, gentlemen of the jury, the 
plaintiff tells you he had nothing to do with the turkey — I dare 
say, gentlemen, not until it was roasted,'' &c. He pronounced 
this word roasted with such rotundity of voice, such a ludi- 
crous whirl of the tongue, and in a manner so indescribably 
comical, that it threw every one into a fit of laughter at the 
plaintiff, who stood up in the place usually allotted to crimi 
nals ; and the defendant was let off with Uttle or no damages." 
The case of John Hook, to which my correspondent alludes, 
is worthy of insertion. Hook was a Scotchman, a man of 
wealth, and suspected of being unfriendly to the American 
cause. During the distresses of the American army, conse- 
quent on the joint invasion of Cornwallis and Phillips in sev- 
enteen hundred and eighty-one, a Mr. Venable, an army com- 
missary had taken two of Hook's steers for the use of the 
troops. 
The act had not been strictly legal ; and on the establish 



PATRICK HENRY. 261 

ment of peace, Hook, under the advice of Mr. Cowan, a gen- 
tleman of some distinction in the law, thought proper to bring 
an action of trespass against Mr. Venable, in the district court 
of New London. Mr. Henry appeared for the defendant, and 
is said to have disported himself in this cause to the infinite 
enjoyment of his hearers, the unfortunate Hook always ex- 
cepted. After Mr. Henry became animated in the cause, says 
a correspondent, (Judge Stuart,) he appeared to have complete 
control over the passions of his audience : at one time he ex- 
cited their indignation against Hook : vengeance was visible 
in every countenance : again when he chose to relax and ridi- 
cule him, the whole audience was in a roar of laughter. 

He painted the distress of the American army, exposed 
almost naked to the rigour of a winter's sky, and marking the 
frozen ground over which they marched, with the blood of 
their unshod feet — " where was the man," he said, " who had 
an American heart in his bosom, who would not have thrown 
open his fields, his barns, his cellars, the doors of his house, 
the portals of his breast, to have received with open arms, the 
meanest soldier in that little band of famished patriots ? Where 
is the man? — There he stands — but whether the heart of an 
American beats in his bosom, you, gentlemen, are to judge." 

He then carried the jury, by the powers of his imagination, 
to the plains around York, the surrender of which had follow- 
ed shortly after the act complained of: he depicted the surren- 
der in the most glowing and noble colours of his eloquence — 
the audience saw before their eyes the humiliation and dejec- 
tion of the British, as they marched out of their trenches — 
they saw the triumph which lighted up every patriot face, and 
heard the shouts of victory, and the cry of Washington and 
liberty as it rung and echoed through the American rank, and 
was reverberated from the hills and shores of the neighbouring 
river — " but hark ! what notes of discord are these which dis- 
turb the general joy, and silence the acclamations of victory — 
they are the notes of John Hook, hoarsely brawling through 
the American camp, beef! beef! beef!''' 

The whole audience were convulsed : a particular incident 
will give a better idea of the effect, than any general descrip- 
tion. The clerk of the court, unable to command himself, and 
unwilling to commit any breach of decorum in his place, rush- 
ed out of the courthouse, and threw himself on the grass, in 
the most violent paroxysm of laughter, where he was rolling, 
when Hook, with very different feelings, came out for relief 
into the yard also. *' Jemmy Steptoe," said he to the clerk, 
" what the devil ails ye, mon ?" Mr. Steptoe was only able to 
say, that he could not help it, *' Never mind ye," said Hook, 



262 wirt's life of 

" wait till Billy Cowan gets up he'll show him the la'." Mr. 
Cowan, however, was so completely overwhelmned by the 
torrent which bore upon his client, that when he rose to reply 
to Mr. Henry, he was scarcely able to make an intelligible or 
audible remark. 

The cause was decided almost by acclamation. The jury 
retired for form sake, and instantly returned with a verdict for 
the defendant. Nor did the effect of Mr. Henry's speech stop 
here. The people were so highly excited by the tory audacity 
of such a suit, that Hook began to hear around him a cry more 
terrible than that of beef; it was the cry of tar and feathers : 
from the application of which it is said, that nothing saved 
him but a precipitate flight and the speed of his horse. 

I have not attempted, in the course of these sketches, to fol- 
low Mr. Henry through his professional career. I have no ma- 
terials to justify such an attempt. It has been, indeed, stated 
to me in general, that he appeared in such and such a case, and 
that he shene with great lustre ; but neither his speeches in 
those cases, nor any point of his argument, nor even any bril- 
liant passage has been communicated, so that the sketch that 
could be given of them must be either confined to a meager 
catalogue of the causes, or the canvass must be filled up by 
my own fancy, which would at once be an act of injustice to 
Mr. Henry, and a departure from that historical veracity, 
which it has been my anxious study in every instance to ob- 
serve. 

I have been told, for example, that in the year seventeen 
hundred and seventy-four, Mr. Henry appeared at the bar of 
the general court, in defence of a married man by the name of 
Henry Bullard, indicted for the murder of a beautiful girl, who 
lived in his house, to whom he had unfortunately become at- 
tached, and whom in a moment of frantic despair, he sacrificed 
to his hopeless passion. The defence is said to have been 
placed on the ground of insanity ; and it is easy to conceive, in 
general the figure which Mr. Henry must have made in such a 
course. Those pathetic powers of eloquence, in which he 
was so pre-eminently great, had ample scope for their exercise 
in this case ; and we can credit, without difficulty, the assertion, 
that he deluged the house with tears, and effected the acquittal 
of his client. But this is all that we know of the case.* 

* If this is the case of Henry Bullard, who was indicted at the April term • 
of seventeen hundred and seventy-four, for the murder of Mary Pinner, this 
honour claimed by my correspondent for Mr. Henry, is not due ; for the records 
of the general court show, that the indictment, although originally drawn for 
the charge of murder, was reduced to manslaughter by the grand jury; of 
which offence the prisoner was convicted. There is, probably, some mistake 
in the name. 



PATRICK HENRY. 

So also I learn that, on the same occasion after the war, he 
appeared at the bar of the house of delegates, in support of a 
petition of the officers of the Virginia line, who sought to be 
placed on the footing of those who had been taken on conti- 
nental establishment : and that, after having depicted their ser- 
vices and their sufferings in colours which filled every heart 
with sympathy and gratitude, he dropped on his knees at the 
bar of the house, and presented such an appeal as might almost 
have softened rocks, and bent the knotted oak. Yet no ves- 
tige of this splendid speech remains ; nor have I been able, 
after the most diligent inquiries, to ascertain the year in which 
it occurred ; similar petitions having been presented for several 
successive sessions. 

It was in the year seventeen hundred and ninety-four, that 
he bade a final adieu to his profession, and retired to the bosom 
of his own family. He retired, loaded with honours, public 
and professional: and carried with him the admiration, the 
gratitude, the confidence, and the love of his country. No 
man had ever passed through so long a life of public service, 
with a reputation more perfectly unspotted. 

Nor had Mr. Henry, on any occasion, sought security from 
censure, by that kind of prudent silence and temporizing neu- 
trality, which politicians so frequently observe. On the con- 
trary, his course had been uniformly active, bold, intrepid, and 
independent. On every great subject of public interest, the 
part which he had taken was open, decided, manly ; his coun- 
try saw his motives, heard his reasons, approved his conduct, 
rested upon his virtue and his vigour; and contemplated with 
amazement, the evolution and unremitted display of his trans- 
cendent talents. 

For more than thirty years he had now stood before that 
country — open to the scrutiny and the censure of the invidious — 
yet he retired, not only without spot or blemish, but with all 
his laurels blooming full and fresh upon him — followed by the 
blessings of his almost adoring countrymen, and cheered by 
that most exquisite of all earthly possessions — the conscious- 
ness of having, in deed and in truth, played well his part. He 
had now, too, become disembarrassed of debt; his fortune was 
affluent ; and he enjoyed in his retirement, that ease and dig- 
nity, which no man ever more richly deserved. 



364 WIRT S LIFE OF 



CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Henry's Retirement — State of Politics — Letter to his Daughter — He is 
again elected Governor— Declines the Office — His Position in regard to the 
two great Political Parties — Presents himself as a Candidate for the House 
of Delegates — Speech before opening the Polls — Eminent Men arrayed 
against Him — His Death. 

Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to other parts 
of his character, in this the concurrence is universal : that 
there never was a man better constituted than Mr. Henry to 
enjoy and adorn the retirement on which he had now entered. 
Nothing can be more amiable, notning more interesting and 
attaching, than those pictures which have been furnished from 
every quarter, without one dissentient stroke of the pencil, of 
this great and virtuous man in the bosom of private life. 

Mr. Jefferson says, that " he was the best-humoured com- 
panion in the world." His disposition was indeed all- sweet- 
ness — his affections were warm, kind, and social — his patience 
invincible — his temper ever unclouded, cheerful, and serene — 
his manners plain, open, familiar, and simple — his conversation 
easy, ingenuous, and unaffected, full of entertainment, full of 
instruction, and irradiated with all those light and softer graces 
which his genius threw without effort, over the most common 
subjects. It is said that there stood in the court, before his door, 
a large walnut-tree, under whose shade it was his delight to 
pass his summer evenings, surrounded by his affectionate and 
happy family, and by a circle of neighbours who loved him al- 
most to idolatry. Here he would disport himself with all the 
careless gayety of infancy. 

Here, too, he would sometimes warm the bosoms of the old, 
and strike fire from the eyes of his younger hearers, by re- 
counting the tales of other times ; by sketching with the bold- 
ness of a master's hand, those great historic incidents in which 
he had borne a part ; and by drawing to the life, and placing 
before his audience, in colours as fresh and strong as those of 
nature, themanyillustriousmenineveryquarter of the continent, 
with whom he had acted a part on the public stage. Here, too, 
he would occasionally discourse with all the wisdom and all the 
eloquence of a Grecian sage, of the various duties and offices 
of life ; and pour forth those lessons of practical utility, with 
which long experience and observation had stored his mind. 

Many were the visiters from a distance, old and young, who 
came on a kind of pious pilgrimage, to the retreat of the vete- 
ran patriot, and found him thus delightfully and usefully em- 
ployed — the old to gaze upon him with long-remembered affec- 



PATRICK HENRY. 

fclon, and ancient gratitude — the young, the ardent, and the 
emulous, to behold and admire, with swimming eyes, the cham- 
pion of other days, and to look with a sigh of generous regret, 
upon that height of glory which they could never hope to reach. 
Blesvsed be the shade of that venerable tree — ever hallowed the 
spot which his genius has consecrated ! 

Mr. Henry received these visits with all his characteristic 
plainness and modesty ; and never failed to reward the fatigue 
of the journey by the warmest welcome, and by the unceremo- 
nious and fascinating familiarity, with which he would at once 
enter into conversation with his new guests, and cause them to 
forget that they were strangers, or abroad. Nor must the reader 
vSuppose that in these conversations he assumed any airs of su- 
periority ; much less that his conversation was, as in some of 
our conspicuous men, a continued, imperious, and didactic lec- 
ture. On the contrary, he carried into private life, all those 
principles of equality which had governed him in public. 

That ascendancy, indeed, which proceeded from the superior 
energy of his mind, and the weight of his character, would 
manifest itself unavoidably, in the deference of his companions ; 
but there was nothing in his manner which would have ever 
reminded them of it. On the contrary, it seemed to be his 
study to cause them to forget it, and to decoy them into a free 
and equal interchange of thought. If he took the lead in con- 
versation, it was not because he sought it ; but because it was 
forced upon him by that silent delight with which he perceived 
that his company preferred to listen to him. 

But it was in the bosom of his own family, where the eye of 
every visiter and even every neighbour was shut out — where 
neither the love of fame, nor the fear of censure, could be sus- 
pected of throwing a false light upon his character — it was in 
that very scene, in which it has been said that "no man is a 
hero," that Mr. Henry's heroism shone with the most engaging 
beauty. It was to his wife, to his children, to his servants, 
that his true character was best known : to this grateful, de- 
voted, happy circle, were best known the patient and tender 
forbearance, the kind indulgence, the forgiving mildness, and 
sweetness of his spirit, those pure and warm affections, which 
were always looking out for the means of improving their feli- 
city, and that watchful prudence and circumspection, which 
guarded them from harm. 

What can be more amiable than the playful tenderness with 
which he joined in the sports of his little children, and the 
boundless indulgence with which he received and returned their 
caresses ? " His visiters," says one of my correspondents, 
" have not unfrequently caught him lying on the floor, with a 

23 



266 wirt's life of 

group of these little ones, clirfibing over him in every direction, 
or dancing around him, with obstreperous mirth, to the tune 
of his violin, while the only contest seemed to be who should 
make the most noise." If there be any bachelor so cold of 
heart as to be offended at this anecdote, I can only remind him 
of the remark of the great Agesilaus to the friend who found 
him riding on a slick among his children: ^^BonH mention ity 
till you are yourself a father V^ 

Such were the scenes of domestic and social bliss, such the 
delicious tranquillity, in which Mr. Henry passed the first years 
of his retirement. Yet this retreat, which so well deserved to 
have been considered as sacred, was doomed in a few years to 
be disturbed by the bickerings of political party. Since Mr. 
Henry's retirement from public life, new parties had arisen in 
the United States, whose animosities had been carried to an 
alarming height. 

The federalists, who supported the measures of the new 
government throughout, were accused by their adversaries of 
a disposition to strain the constructive powers of the constitu- 
tion to their highest possible pitch ; of a secret wish to convert 
the government, into a substantial monarchy at least ; to which 
purpose, the assumption of state debts, the establishment of 
the funding system, and of the national bank, the alarming in- 
crease of the public debt, the imposition of a heavy load of 
internal taxes, the establishment of an army and a navy, with 
all their consequences of favouritism' and extensive executive 
patronage, were alleged to have been introduced. 

They were branded with the name of aristocrats, a name of 
reproach borrowed from the parties in France ; and were char- 
ged with being inimical to the cause of human liberty, as was 
said to be proved by their hostility to the progress of the 
French revolution, as well as by the alarming character of those 
measures which they were pushing forward in America. They 
were suspected and accused of a preference for a government 
of ranks and orders, and a secret love of titles of nobility ; of 
which it was said, one of their principal leaders had furnished 
a decisive proof, so far as he was concerned, by having pro- 
posed the introduction of titles in the continental convention 
which had framed the constitution. 

The party which urged these charges, took the name of re- 
publicans and democrats ; declared themselves the friends of 
liberty and the people, and the firm advocates of a government 
of the people by the people. They were devoted, with enthu- 
siasm, to the cause of liberty in France : considered man, as 
the only title of nobihty which ought to be admitted, and his 
freedom and happiness as the sole objects of government ; this 



PATRICK HENRY. 5867 

they contended, was the principle on which the American revo- 
lution had turned ; that the great objects of the revolution 
could be no otherwise attained, than by a simple, pure, eco- 
nomical, and chaste administration of the federal government; 
and by restricting the several departments under the new con- 
stitution, to tlie express letter of the powers assigned to them 
by that instrument. 

The federalists on the other hand, denied and repelled, with 
great acrimony and vehemence, the charges which had been 
urged against them by their adversaries. They contended that 
the measures complained of were warranted by the constitution, 
and were necessary to give to the federal government the effect 
which was intended by its adoption. They insisted that they 
were simply the friends of order and good government ; and 
in their turn, branded their adversaries with the name of Jaco- 
bins^ who having caught the mania from France, were for 
overturning all government and throwing everything into an- 
archy and uproar, in the hope of rising themselves to the top 
of the chaos. 

They alleged that the opposition was formed of the dregs of 
the American people, headed and goaded on by a iew design- 
ing men, and fermented into faction by the revolutionary ele- 
ments thrown among them, from abroad, in the shape of 
French and Irish emigrants and convicts. They insisted that 
it was indispensably necessary to the peace and order of the 
American nation, that those foreign incendiaries should be 
driven out from the land, and that the licentious fury of our 
own populace should also be bridled. Under this impression, 
were passed those alien and sedition laws, which are supposed 
to have put an end to the federal power in America. 

It is not my function to decide between these parties ; nor 
do I feel myself qualified for such an office. I have lived too 
near the times, and am conscious of having been too strongly 
excited by the feelings of the day, to place myself in the chair 
of the arbiter. It would indeed, be no difficult task to present, 
under the engaging air of historic candour, the arguments on 
one side, in an attitude so bold and commanding ; and to exhibit 
those on the other, under a form so faint and shadowy, as to 
beguile the reader into the adoption of my own opinions. 

But this would be unjust to the opposite party, and a disin- 
genuous abuse of the confidence of the reader. Let us then re- 
mit the question to the historian of future ages ; who, if the 
particular memory of the past times shall not be lost in those 
great events which seem preparing for the nation, will proba- 
bly decide, that, as in most family quarrels, both parties have 
been somewhat in the wrong. 



5868 ' V^IRT^S LIFE OF 

For my purpose, it is sufficient to state the rise and existence 
of those parties, and the fact that their collision had convulsed 
the whole society. Mr. Henry, although removed from the 
immediate scene of contention, was still an object of too much 
consequence to be viewed with indifference. He had a weight 
of character which gave to his opinions a preponderating influ- 
ence on every subject, and both parties were equally anxious 
to gain him to their cause. His expressions were watched 
with the most anxious attention, and it was not long before an 
alarm of his defection from the popular cause was given. The 
first occasion of it I discover, was the treaty of seventeen hun- 
dred and ninety-four, with Great Britain, commonly known 
by the name of Jay's treaty. 

It will be remembered by the reader, that Mr. Henry had 
objected to the constitution on the ground that it gave to the 
president and senate the whole treaty-making power. This 
construction of the instrument was not denied in the state con- 
vention ; but on the contrary, was at least impliedly admitted; 
and the provision was vindicated on the ground that the power 
of treating could be nowhere more safely and properly 
lodged. 

" When, therefore, the republican leaders in the house of 
representatives claimed a right to participate in the ratification 
of Jay's treaty, Mr. Henry considered them as inconsistent 
with themselves, and as departing from their own construction 
of the constitution. This charge and the defence, have both 
been made known to me, by the following letter from Mr. 
Henry to his daughter, Mrs. Aylett : — 

" Red Hill, August 20, 1796. 

" My Dear Betsy : Mr. William Aylett's arrival here, 
with your letter, gave me the pleasure of hearing of your wel- 
fare, and to hear of that is highly gratifying to me, as I so sel- 
dom see you," &c. [The rest of this paragraph relates to 
family affairs.] 

"As to the reports you have heard of my changing sides in, 
politics, I can only say they are not true. I am too old t'> 
exchange my former opinions, <vhich have grown up into fixed 
habits of thinking. True it is, I have condemned the conduct 
of our members in congress, because, in refusing to raise 
money for the purposes of the British treaty, they, in effect, 
would have surrendered our country, bound hand and foot, to 
the power of the British nation. This must have been the 
consequence, I think; but the reasons for thinking so are too 
tedious to trouble you with. The treaty is, in my opinion, a 
very bad one, indeed. 

But what must I think of those men, wTiom I myself warned 



PATRICK HENRY. 269 

of the danger of giving the power of making laws by means 
of a treaty, to the president and senate, when I see these same 
men denying the existence of that power, which they insisted, 
in our convention, ought properly to be exercised by the presi- 
dent and senate, and by none other? The policy of these men, 
both then and now, appears to me quite void of wisdom and 
foresight. These sentiments I did mention in conversation 
in Richmond, and perhaps others which I don't remember; 
but sure I am, my first principle is, that from the British we 
have everything to dread, when opportunities of oppressing 
us shall offer. 

*' It seems that every word was watched which I casually 
dropped, and wrested to answer party views. Who can have 
been so meanly employed, I know not — nor do I care ; for I 
no longer consider myself as an actor on the stage of public life. 
It is time for me to retire ; and I shall never more appear in a 
public character, unless some unlooked-for circumstance shall 
demand from me a transient effort, not inconsistent with pri- 
vate life — in which I have determined to continue. 

I see with concern our old commander-in-chief most abu- 
sively treated — nor are his long and great services remembered, 
as any apology for his mistakes in an office to which he was to- 
tally unaccustomed. If he, whose character as our leader 
during the whole war was above all praise, is so roughly han- 
dled in his old age, what may be expected by men of the com- 
mon standard of character ? I ever wished he might keep him- 
self clear of the office he bears, and its attendant difficulties — but 
I am sorry to see the gross abuse which is published of him. 
Thus, my dear daughter, have I pestered you with a long let- 
ter on politics, which is a subject little interesting to you, 
except as it may involve my reputation. I have long learned 
the little value which is to be placed on popularity, acquired by 
any other way than virtue ; and I have also learned, that it is 
often obtained by other means. 

The view which the rising greatness of our country presents 
to my eyes, is greatly tarnished by the general prevalence of 
deism ; which, with me, is but another name for vice and de- 
pravity. I am, however, much consoled by reflecting, that the 
religion of Christ has, from its first appearance in the world, 
been attacked in vain, by all the wits, philosophers, and wise 
ones, aided by every power of man, and its triumph has been 
complete. 

"What is there in the wit, or wisdom of the present de- 
istical writers or professors, that can compare them with Hume, 
Shaftsbury, Bolingbroke, and others ? and yet these have been 
confuted, and their fame decaying ; insomuch, that the puny 



270 wirt's life of ' 

efforts of Paine are thrown in to prop their tottering fabric, 
whose foundations cannot stand the test of time. 

"Among other strange things said of me, I hear it is said by 
the deists that 1 am one of the number ; and, indeed, that 
some good people think I am no Christian. This thought 
gives me much more pain than the appellation of tory ; because 
I think religion of infinitely higher importance than politics; 
and I find much cause to reproach myself, that I have lived so 
long, and have given no decided and public proofs of my being 
a Christian. 

" But, indeed, my dear child, this is a character which I prize 
far above all this world has or can boast. And among all 
the handsome things I hear said of you, what gives me the 
greatest pleasure is, to be told of your piety and steady virtue. 
Be assured there is not one tittle, as to disposition or character, 
in which my parental affection for you would suffer a wish for 
your changing ; and it flatters my pride to have you spoken of 
as you are. 

"Perhaps Mr. Roane and Anne may have heard the reports 
you mention. If it will be any object with them to see what I 
write you, show them this. But my wish is to pass the rest 
of my days, as much as may be, unobserved by the critics of 
the world, who would show but little sympathy for the defi- 
ciencies to which old age is so liable. May God bless you, 
my dear Betsy, and your children. Give my love to Mr.'^Ay- 
lett, 

" And believe me ever your affectionate father, 

" P. Henry." 
This charge, however, had not deprived Mr. Henry of the 
confidence of his country ; for in the session of the legislature 
which followed the date of his letter, he was for the third time 
elected the governor of the state. The letter by which he de- 
clined the acceptance of that office is as follows : — 

* To the honourable the speaker of the house of delegates, 
" Charlotte County, November 29, 1796. 

" Sir : I have just received the honour of yours, informing 
me of my appointment to the chief magistracy of the common- 
wealth. And I have to beg the favour of you, sir, to convey 
to the general assembly, my best acknowledgments, and warm- 
est gratitude for the signal honour they have conferred on me. 
I should be happy if I could persuade myself, that my abilities 
were commensurate to the duties of that office ; but my de- 
clining years warn me of my inability. 

"I beg leave, therefore, to decline the appointment, and to 
hope and trust that the general assembly will be pleased t© 



PATRICK HENRY. 271 

excuse me for doing so ; as no doubt can be entertained that 
many of my fellow-citizens possess the requisite abilities for 
this high trust. 

" With the highest regard, I am, sir, 

" Your most obedient servant, 

" P. Henry." 

This was the last testimonial of public confidence which Mr. 
Henry received from his native state. The rumours of his po- 
litical apostacy became strong and general. He was a prize 
worth contending for; and it is not wonderful, therefore, that 
the rival parties observed, with the most jealous distrust, every 
advance which was made toward him by the other, and inter- 
preted such advances as so many stratagems to gain him over : 
nor is it wonderful, if, during the fever of that hot and violent 
struggle, many things were supposed to be seen, which did not 
in fact exist: and that those which did exist were sometimes 
seen under false shapes and colours. 

It was reported at that day, that on Mr. Jefferson's resig- 
nation of the office of secretary of state, that office was of- 
fered to Mr. Henry, in the confidence, that while the offer 
would gratify him, he would nevertheless reject it : however 
this may be, it is certain that the embassy to Spain was offered 
to him, during the first administration ; and that to France du- 
ring the second.* 

These offers were known at the time ; and when compared 
with his advanced age — the large family with which he was en- 
cumbered — his settled and well-known purpose of retirement^- 
and the consequent probability that these offers would not be 
accepted — and the sentiments which he afterward expressed, 
in favour of some of the measures of the administration, 
which were extremely obnoxious in Virginia — those offers 
were considered by the republicans, as so many strokes of po- 
litical flattery, addressed to the vanity of an old man, and 
which had been but too successful in having won him to the 
federal ranks. 

That he approved of the alien and sedition laws, as good 
measures, is undeniable ; indeed, he was not a man who would 
deny any opinion that he held : and, however honest might 
have been his conviction, both of the constitutionality and ex- 
pediency of these measures, it is equally undeniable, that his 
sentiments in relation to them, combined with the above causes, 
by which those sentiments were suspected of having been in- 
fluenced, produced an extremely unpropitious effect on his 
popularity in Virginia. 

* On the authority of Judge Winston. 



272 wirt's life of 

The charge of apostacy, however, implies a previous com 
mitment to the opposite side : but the evidence that Mr. Henry 
ever stood committed to the democratic or to any other party, 
(except the great American party of liberty and republican 
government,) has not yet been seen by the author of these 
sketches. At the time of his retirement, it is believed that the 
post-constitutional parties were not distinctly marked. He 
had no opportunity, after they were so marked, of expressing 
his opinion publicly in favour of the one side or the other. 

It is highly probable, that his opinions did not coincide 
throughout with those of either side : and it would be rather 
rash to infer, from his disapprobation of one or more measures 
of the administration, or from his general love of liberty, that 
he must of necessity have been attached at first to the demo- 
cratic side. Nor would it be more correct to infer, from his 
having resisted the adoption of the federal constitution, that 
he was therefore opposed to the measures of those who admin- 
istered it ; for the converse of this proposition, which must be 
equally true, would have thrown many more into the federal 
ranks than would have been willing to acknowledge the con- 
nexion. Mr. Henry had moreover declared, as we have seen, 
in the last speech which he made in the state convention, in 
opposition to the constitution, that if it should be adopted, he 
would be a peaceable citizen ; that he would not go to violence, 
but that he would seek the correction of whatever he thought 
amiss, hy quiet means. 

Upon the whole, it would seem more liberal, more consonant 
to the high character of Mr. Henry's mind, with his time of 
life, and with that distant and feeble connexion which he now- 
considered himself as holding with politics, and indeed with 
the world — to believe that he looked, without passion or pre- 
judice of any kind, on the course of the administration, ap- 
proving or condemning, according to his own judgment, with- 
out reference to the pleasure or opinions of either side : or if 
we must suppose him under personal influence of any kind, 
would it have been unpardonable in him, to have been influen- 
ced by the opinions of that man who had ever stood first both 
in his judgment and affections, and whom all America acknowl- 
edged as the father of his country ? Other natural causes, too, 
may be fairly considered as having united their influence in 
producing this diflference of political sentiment, between Mr. 
Henry and the majority of his state. 

In the year seventeen hundred and ninety-seven, his health 
began to decline, and continued to sink gradually to the mo- 
ment of his death.* He had now passed through a stormy lif« 
* Judge WinstoDu 



PATRICK HENRY. 273 

to his sixtieth year, and the vigour of his mind, exhausted 
more by past toils than by years, began to give way. Those 
energies which had enabled him to brave the power of Great 
Britain, and to push forward the glorious revolution which 
made us free, existed no longer in their original force. 

The usual infirmities of age and disease began to press, 
sorely and heavily, upon his sinking spirits. He was startled 
by that clash of contending parties, which rang continually 
around him, and invaded, with perpetually increasing horror, 
the stillness of his retreat. His retirement cut him off, almost 
entirely, from all communication with those who were best able 
to explain the grounds, as well as the character and measure 
of opposition to the ofi'ensive measures, which was intended ; 
and the spirit and views of that opposition were, no doubt, ag- 
gravated to him by report. 

Acting as those things did on the mind of an infirm old man ; 
worn out by the toils and troubles of the past revolution, and 
naturally wishing for repose ; alarmed too, and agonized by 
the hideous scenes of that revolution which was then going on 
in France; and tortured by the apprehension that those scenes 
were about to be acted over again in his own country — it is not 
surprising, that he was dismayed by the vehemence of that polit- 
ical strife which then agitated the United States ; nor would it 
be surprising, if his solicitude to allay the ferment and restore 
the peace of society, should, in some degree, have obscured 
the decisions of his mind ; and placed him, rather by his fears 
than his judgment, in opposition to the forcible resistance, 
which he had been erroneously led to consider as meditated by 
the democratic party. 

In a mind thus prepared, the strong and animated resolu- 
tions of the Virginia assembly, in seventeen hundred and 
ninety-eight, in relation to the alien and sedition laws, conjured 
up the most frightful visions of civil war, disunion, blood, and 
anarchy ; and under the impulse of these phantoms, to make 
what ht considered a virtuous effort for his country, he pre- 
sented himself in Charlotte county, as a candidate for the house 
of delegates, at the spring election of seventeen hundred and 
ninety-nine. 

On the day of the election, as soon as he appeared on the 
ground, he was surrounded by the admiring and adoring crowd, 
and whithersoever he moved, the concourse followed him. A 
preacher of the Baptist Church, whose piety was wounded by 
this homage paid to a mortal, asked the people aloud, "Why 
they thus followed Mr. Henry about? — Mr. Henry," said he, 
*' is not a god !" 

" No," said Mr. Henry, deeply affected both by the scene 



274 wirt's life of 

and the remark : " no, indeed, my friend ; I am but a poor 
worm of the dust — as fleeting and unsubstantial as the shadow 
of the cloud that flies over your fields, and is remembered no 
more." The tone with which this was uttered, and the look 
which accompanied it, aflfected every heart, and silenced every 
voice. Envy and opposition were disarmed by his humility ; 
the recollection of his past services rushed upon every mem- 
ory, and he " read his liistory" in their svi^imming eyes. 

Before the polls were opened, he addressed the people of the 
county to the following effect: — "He told them that the late 
proceedings of the Virginian assembly had filled him with ap- 
prehensions and alarm ; that they had planted thorns upon his 
pillow ; that they had drawn him from that happy retirement 
which it bad pleased a bountiful Providence to bestow, and in 
which he had hoped to pass, in quiet, the remainder of his 
days ; that the state had quitted the sphere in which she had 
been placed by the constitution ; and in daring to pronounce 
upon the validity of federal laws, had gone out of her jurisdic- 
tion in a manner not warranted by any authority, and in the 
highest degree alarming to every considerate man ; that such 
opposition on the part of Virginia, to the acts of the general 
government, m.ust beget their enforcement by military power; 
that this would probably produce civil war ; civil war, foreign 
alliances ; and that foreign alliances must necessarily end in 
subjuffation to the powers called in. 

" He conjured the people to pause and consider well, before 
they rushed into such a desperate condition, from which there 
could be no retreat. He painted to their imaginations, Wash- 
ington, at the head of a numerous and well-appointed army, 
inflicting upon them military execution: * And ^vhere (he asked) 
are our resources to meet such a conflict ? — Where is the citi- 
zen of America who will dare to lift his hand against the father 
of his country V 

" A drunken man in the crowd threw up his arm, and ex- 
claimed that 'he dared to do it.' — ' No,' answered Mr. Henry, 
rising aloft in all his majesty : ^you dare not do it : in such a 
parricidal attempt, the steel would drop from your nerveless 
armV ' The look and gesture at this moment, (says a corres- 
pondent,)' gave to these words an energy on my mind unequalled 
by anything that I have ever witnessed.' Mr. Henry, pro- 
ceeding in his address to the people, asked — ' whether the 
county of Charlotte would have any authority to dispute an 
obedience to the laws of Virginia;' and he pronounced Virginia 
to be to the Union, what the county of Charlotte was to her. 

"Having denied tbe right of a state to decide upon the con- 
stitutionality of federal laws, he added, that perhaps it might 



PATRICK HENRY. 



Sfi 



be necessary to say something of the merits of the laws in 
question. His private opinion was, that they were good and 
proper. But, whatever might be their merits, it belonged to 
the people, who held the reins over the head of congress, and 
to them alone, to say whether they were acceptable or othei 
wise to Virginians ; and that this must be done by way of peti- 
tion. That congress were as much our representatives as the 
assembly, and had as good a right to our confidence. 

" He had seen with regret, the unlimited power over the 
purse and sword consigned to the general government ; but 
that he had been overruled, and it was now necessary to sub- 
mit to the constitutional exercise of that power. 'If,' said he, 
' I am asked what is to be done, when a people feel themselves 
intolerably oppressed, my answer is ready : — Overturn the 
government. But do not, I beseeech you, carry matters to this 
this length, without provocation. Wait at least until some in- 
fringement is made upon your rights, and which cannot other- 
wise be redressed ; for if ever you recur to another change, 
you may bid adieu for ever to representative government. 

" You can never exchange the present government but for a 
monarchy. If the administration have done wrong, let us all 
go wrong together, rather than split into factions, which must 
destroy that union upon which our existence hangs. Let us 
preserve our strength for the French, the English, the Germans, 
or whoever else shall dare to invade our territory, and not ex- 
haust it in civil commotions and intestine wars.' He concluded, 
by declaring his design to exert himself in the endeavour to allay 
the heart-burnings and jealousies which had been fomented in 
the state legislature ; and he fervently prayed, if he was deem- 
ed unworthy to effect it, that it might be reserved to some 
other and abler hand, to extend this blessing over the community.'* 

This was the substance of the speech written down at the 
time by one of his hearers. " There was," says the writer, 
•* an emphasis in his language, to which, like the force of his 
articulation, and the commanding expression of his eye, no 
representation can do justice ; yet I am conscious of having 
given a correct transcript of his opinions, and in many in- 
stances, his very expression." 

Such was the last effort of Mr. Henry's eloquence : the 
power of the noonday sun was gone ; but its setting splendours 
were not less beautiful and touching. After this speech, the 
polls were opened ; and he was elected by his usual command- 
ing majority. His intention having been generally known for 
some time before the period of the state elections, the most 
formidable preparations were made to oppose him in the as 
sembly. 



376 wirt's life of 

Mr. Madison, (the late president of the United Slates,) Mr. 
Giles, of Amelia, Mr. Taylor, of Caroline, Mr. Nicholas of 
Albemarle, and a host of young men of shining talents from 
every part of the state, were arrayed in the adverse rank, and 
commanded a decided majority in the house. But Heaven, in 
its mercy, saved him from the unequal conflict. The disease 
which had been preying upon him for two years, now hastened 
to its crisis ; and on the sixth day of June, seventeei. hundred, 
and ninety-nine, this friend of liberty and of man was no 
more ! 

Here let us pause. The storm of seventeen hundred and 
ninety-nine, thank Heaven ! has passed away ; and we again 
enjoy the calm and sunshine of domestic peace. We are able, 
now, to see with other eyes, and to feel with far different 
hearts. Who is there that, looking back upon the part he bore 
in those scenes, can say that lie was at no time guilty of any 
fault of conduct, any error of opinion, or any vicious excess 
of feeling? The man who can say this, is either very much 
to be pitied, or most exceedingly to be envied. 

But whatever we may be disposed to say or think of our- 
selves, there can be very little doubt, that that Being who is 
the searcher of hearts, sees very much during that period, to 
be forgiven in us all. It would, indeed, be presumptuous in 
the extreme, amid the universal admission which is made of 
the imperfections of human nature, in the happiest circum- 
stances, to contend for its infallibility, while acting under 
the scourge of the most angry and vindictive passions. 

Let it be admitted, then, that during the period of which we 
are speaking, Mr. Henry was gwWiy of a political aberration; 
but let all the peculiar circumstances of his case which have 
been enumerated, be taken into the account, and let it be far- 
ther remembered, that if he did go astray, as the majority of 
the state believe, he strayed in company with the father of his 
country — and where is the heart so cold and thankless, as to 
balance a mistake thus committed, against a long life of such 
solid, splendid, and glorious utility? Certainly not in Vif- 
ginia — and it is to Virginians only that this appeal is made. 
The sentiments now so universally expressed in relation to 
Mr. Henry, evince, that the age of party resentment has pass- 
ed away, and that that of the noblest gratitude has taken its 
place. But let us return to our narrative. 

At the session of the assembly immediately following Mr. Hen- 
ry's death, before the spirit of party had time to relent, and 
give way to that generous feeling of grateful veneration for 
him, which now pervades the state, a federal member of the 
house moved the following resolution : — 



PATRICK HENRY. 877 

" The general assembly of Virginia, as a testimonial of their 
veneration for the character of their late illustrious fellow- 
citizen, Patrick Henry, whose unrivalled eloquence and supe- 
rior talents were, in times of peculiar peril and distress, so 
uniformly, so powerfully, and so successfully, devoted to the 
cause of freedom, and of his country — and, in order to invite 
the present and future generations to an imitation of his vir- 
tues, and an emulation of his fame — 

" Resolvedj That the executive be authorized and requested, 
to procure a marble bust of the said Patrick Henry, at the pub- 
lic expense, and to cause the same to be placed in one of the 
niches of the hall of the house of delegates." 

Nothing could have been more unfortunate for the success 
of this resolution, than the time at which it was brought for- 
ward, and the mover by whom it was offered. The time, as 
■we have seen, was during that paroxysm of displeasure against 
Mr. Henry, which even his death, although it had abated, had 
not entirely allayed : and the mover was a gentleman who had 
himself been recently counted on the republican side of the 
house, and was now also smarting under the charge of apos- 
tacy. 

AH the angry passions of the house immediately arose at 
such a proposition, from such a quarter. A republican mem- 
ber moved to lay the resolution on the table; the gentleman 
who offered it replied with warmth, that if it were so disposed 
of he would never call it up again. It was laid upon the table, 
and has been heard of no more. 

Thus Hved, and thus died, the celebrated Patrick Henry of 
Virginia ; a man who justly deserves to be ranked among the 
highest ornaments and noblest benefactors of his country. 
Had his lot been cast in the republics of Greece or Rome, his 
name would have been enrolled by some immortal pen, among 
the expellers of tyrants and the champions of liberty : the 
proudest monuments of national gratitude would have risen to 
his honour, and handed down his memory to future genera- 
tions. 

As it is, his fame as yet, is left to rest upon tradition, and on 
that short notice which general history can take of him ; while 
no memorial, no slab even, raised hy the hand of national grat- 
itude, points us to his grave, or tells where sleep the ashes of 
the patriot and the sage. May we not hope, that this reproach 
upon the state will soon be wiped away, and that ample atone- 
ment will be made for our past neglect? 

34 



^8 WIRT*S LIFE OF 



CHAPTER XI. 

Delineations of Mr. Henry's private Character — Anecdotes of Mr. Lee — of 
Mr. Gallatin — Mr. Henry's Political Foresight — Description of his Person— • 
Further General View of his Character — Conclusion. 

Mr. Henry, by his two rnarriages, was the father of fifteen 
children. By his first wife he had six, of whom two only sur- 
vived him ; by his last he had six sons and three daughters, 
all of whom, together with their mother, were living at his 
death. 

He had been fortunate during the latter part of his life; and, 
chiefly by the means of judicious purchases of lands, had left 
his family, large as it was, not only independent, but rich. 

In his habits of living, he was remarkably temperate and 
frugal. He seldom drank anything but water ; and his table, 
though abundantly spread, was furnished only with the most 
simple viands. Necessity had imposed those habits upon him 
in the earlier part of his life ; and use, as well as reason, now 
made them his choice. 

His children were raised up with little or no restraint. He 
seems not to have thought very highly of early education. It 
is indeed probable, that his own success, which was attributa- 
ble almost entirely to the natural powers of his mind, had di- 
minished the importance of an extensive education in his view. 
But although they were suffered to run wild for some years, 
and, indeed, committed to the sole guidance of nature, to a 
much later period than usual, yet they were finally all well ed- 
ucated ; and not only by the reflected worth of their father, 
but by their own merits, have always occupied a most respect- 
able station in society. 

Mr. Henry's conversation was remarkably pure and chaste. 
He never swore. He was never heard to take the name of 
his Maker in vain. He was a sincere Christian, though after 
a form of his own ; for he was never attached to any particu- 
lar religious society, and never, it is believed, communed with 
any church. A friend who visited him not long before his 
death, found him engaged in reading the Bible : — " Here," said 
he, holding it up, "is a book worth more than all the other 
books that were ever printed : yet it is my misfortune never to 
have found time to read it, with the proper attention and feel- 
ing, till lately. I trust in the mercy of Heaven that it is not 
yet too late." 

He was much pleased with Soamc Jenyns' view of the in- 
ternal evidences of the Christian religion ; so much so, that 



PATRICK HENRY. 2(79 

about the year seventeen hundred and ninety, he had an impres- 
sion of it struck at his own expense, and distributed among the 
people. His other favourite works on the subject were Dod- 
dridge's " Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," and 
Butler's "Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed." This 
latter work, he used at one period of his life to style, by way 
of pre-eminence, his Bible. The selection proves not only 
the piety of his temper, but the correctness of his taste, and 
his relish for profound and vigorous disquisition. 

His morals were strict. As a husband, a father, a master, 
he had no superior. He was kind and hospitable to the stran- 
ger, and most friendly and accommodating to his neighbours. 
In his dealings with the world, he was faithful to his promise, 
and punctual in his contracts, to the utmost of his power. 

Yet we do not claim for him a total exemption from the fail- 
ures of humanity. Moral perfection is not the property of 
man. The love of money is said to have been one of Mr. 
Henry's strongest passions. In his desire for accumulation, he 
was charged with wringing from the hands of his clients, and 
more particularly those of the criminals whom he defended, 
fees rather too exorbitant. He was censured too, for an at- 
tempt to locate the shores of the Chesapeake, which had here- 
tofore been used as a public common, although there was, at 
that time, no law of the state which protected them from lo- 
cation. 

In one of his earlier purchases of land, he was blamed also 
for having availed himself of the existing laws of the state, in 
paying for it in the depreciated paper currency of the country ; 
nor was he free from censure on account of some participation 
which he is said to have had in the profits of the Yazoo trade. 
He was accused, too, of having been rather more vain of 
his wealth, toward the close of his life, than became a man 
so great in other respects. Let these things be admitted, and 
"let the man who is without fault cast the first stone." 

In mitigation of these charges, if they be true, it ought to 
be considered that Mr. Henry, had been, during the greater 
part of his life, intolerably oppressed by poverty and all its 
distressing train of consequences ; that the family for which 
he had to provide was very large ; and that the bar, although 
it has been called the road to honour, was not in those days the 
road to wealth. With these considerations in view, charity 
may easily pardon him for having considered only the legality 
of the means which he used to acquire an independence ; and 
she can easily excuse him too, for having felt the success of 
his endeavors a little more sensibly than might have been be- 
coming. 



280 wiRT*6 LIFE or 

He was certainly neither proud, nor hard-hearted nor penu 
rious : if he was either, there can be no reliance on human 
testimony ; which represents him as being, in his general inter- 
course with the world, not only rigidly honest, but one of 
the kindest, gentlest, and most indulgent of human beings. 

While we are on this ungrateful subject of moral imperfec- 
tion, the fidelity of history requires us to notice another charge 
against Mr. Henry. His passion for fame is said to have been 
too strong ; he was accused of a wish to monopolize the public 
favour ; and under the influence of this desire, to have felt no 
gratification in the rising fame of certain conspicuous charac- 
ters ; to have indulged himself in invidious and unmerited re- 
marks upon them, and to have been at the bottom of a cabal 
against one of the most eminent. If these things were so 
— alas ! poor human nature ! 

It is certain that these charges are very inconsistent with his 
general character. So far from being naturally envious, and 
disposed to keep back modest merit, one of the finest traits in 
his character was, the parental tenderness with which he took 
by the hand every young man of merit, covered him with his 
a3gis in the legislature and led him forward at the bar. In re- 
lation to his first great rival in eloquence, Richard Henry Lee, 
he not only did ample justice to him on every occasion, in pub- 
lic, but defended his fame in private, with all the zeal of a 
brother ; as is demonstrated by an original correspondence 
between those two eminent men, now in the hands of the 
author. 

Of Colonel Innis, his next great rival, he entertained, and 
uniformly expressed, the most exalted opinion ; and in the 
convention of 1788, as will be remembered, paid a compliment 
to his eloquence, at once so splendid, so happy, and so just, 
that it will live for ever. The debates of that convention 
abound with the most unequivocal and ardent declarations of 
his respect, for the talents and virtues of the other eminent 
gentlemen who were arrayed against him — Mr. Madison — 
Mr. Pendleton — Mr. Randolph. 

Even the justly great and overshadowing fame of Mr. Jef- 
ferson never extorted from him, in public at least, one invidi- 
ous remark ; on the contrary, the name of that gentleman, who 
was then in France, having been introduced into the debates of 
the convention, for the purpose of borrowing the weight of 
his opinion, Mr. Henry spoke of him in the strongest and 
warmest terms, not only of admiration, but of affection — sty- 
ling him "owr illustrions feUow-citize7i,^^ — ^^ our enlightened 
and worthy countryman^''^ — " our common friend^ 

The ir^rdinate love of money and of fame, are, certainly, 



PATRICK HENRY. 281 

base and degrading passions. They have sometimes tarnish- 
ed characters otherwise the most bright ; but they will find no 
advocate or apologist in any virtuous bosom. In relation to 
Mr. Henry, however, we may be permitted to doubt whether 
the facts on which these censures (so inconsistent with his gen- 
eral character) are grounded, have not been misconceived; 
and whether so much of them as is really true, may not be 
fairly charged to the common account of human imperfection. 

Mr. Henry's great intellectual defect was his indolence. To 
this it was owing, that he never possessed that admirable alert- 
ness and vigouros versatility of mind, which turns promptly 
to everything, attends to everything, arranges everything, 
and by systematizing its operations, despatches each in its 
proper time, and place and manner. To the same cause it is to 
be ascribed, that he never possessed that patient drudgery, and 
that ready, neat, copious, and masterly command of details, 
"which forms so essential a part of the duties both of the states- 
man and the lawyer. 

Hence, too, he did not avail himself of the progress of sci- 
ence and literature, in his age. He had not, as he might have 
done, amassed those ample stores of various, useful, and curious 
knowledge, which are so naturally expected to be found in a 
great man. His library (of which an inventory has been fur- 
nished to the author) was extremely small ; composed jiot on- 
ly of a very few books, but those, too, commonly odd volumes. 
Of science and literature, he knew little or nothing more than 
was occasionly gleaned from conversation. It is not easy to 
conceive, what a mind like his might have achieved in either, 
or both of these walks, had it been properly trained at first, or 
industriously occupied in those long intervals of leisure which 
he threw away. 

One thing, however, may be safely pronounced ; that had 
that mind of Herculean strength been either so trained, or so 
occupied, he would have left behind him some written monu- 
ment, compared with which, even statutes and pillars would 
have been but the ephemerae of a day. But he seems to have 
been of Hobbes's opinion, who is reported to have said of 
himself, that "if he had read as much as other men, he should 
have been as ignorant as they were."* Mr. Henry's book 
was the great volume of human nature. In this, he was more 
deeply read than any of his countrymen. He knew men 
thoroughly ; and hence arose his great power of persuasion. f 

* Bayle : article Hobbes. 

t " It is in vain," says the Chancellor D'Aguesseau, " that the orator flatters 
himself with having the talent to persuade men, if he has not acquired that of 
kuowing them." Discourse i., p. 1. 



283 wirt's life op 

His preference of this study, is manifested by the following 
incident : — he met once, in a bookstore, with the late Mr. 
Ralph Wormley, who, although a great bookworm, was infi- 
nitely more remarkable for his ignorance of men, than Mr. 
Henry was for that of books. — "What, Mr. Wormley," said 
he, "still buying books?" "Yes," said Mr. Wormley, "I 
have just heard of a new work, which I am extremely anxious 
to peruse." " Take my word for it," said he, " Mr. Wormley, 
" we are too old to read books : read men — they are the only 
volumes that we can peruse to advantage." But Mr. Henry 
might have perused both with infinite advantage, not only 
to himself, but to his country, and to the world ; and that 
he did not do it, may, it is believed, be fairly ascribed, rather 
to the indolence of his temper, than the deliberate decision of 
his judgment. 

Judge Winston says, that "he was, throughout life, negli- 
gent of his dress :" but this, it is apprehended, applied rather 
to his habits in the country, than to his appearance in public. 
At the bar of the general court, he always appeared in a full 
suit of black cloth, or velvet, and a tie wig, which was dressed 
and powdered in the highest style of forensic fashion ; in the 
winter season, too, according to the costume of the day, he 
wore over his other apparel an ample cloak of scarlet cloth ; 
and thus attired, made a figure bordering on grandeur. While 
he filled the executive chair, he is said to have been justly at- 
tentive to his dress, and appearance ; " not being disposed to 
afford the occasion of humiliating comparisons between the 
past and present government." 

He had long since, too, laid aside the offiensive rusticity of 
his juvenile manners. His manners, indeed, were still unosten- 
tatious, frank, and simple ; but they had all that natural ease 
and unaffected gracefulness, which distinguish the circles of the 
polite and wellbred. On occasions, too, where state and cere- 
mony were expected, there was no man who could act better his 
part. I have had a description of Mr. Henry, entering, in the 
full dress which I have mentioned, the hall of delegates, at 
whose bar he was about to appear as an advocate, and saluting 
the house, all around, with a dignity and even majesty, that 
would have done honour to the most polished courtier in 
Europe. 

This, however, was only on extraordinary occasions, when 
such a deportment was expected, and was properly in its place. 
In general, his manners were those of the plain Virginian gen- 
tleman — kind — open — candid — and conciliating — warm with- 
out insincerity, and polite without pomp — neither chilling by 
his reserve, nor fatiguing by his loquacity — but adapting him- 



PATRICK HENRY. 

self, without an effort, to the character of his company. " He 
would be pleased and cheerful," says a correspondent, " with 
persons of any class or condition, vicious and abandoned per- 
sons only excepted ; he preferred those of character and talents, 
but would be amused with any who could contribute to his 
amusement." 

He had himself a vein of pleasantry, which was extremely 
amusing, without detracting from his dignity. His companions, 
although perfi^tly at their ease with him, were never known to 
treat him with degrading familiarities. Their love and their 
respect for him equally forbade it. Nor had they any dread of 
an assault upon their feelings ; for their was nothing cruel in 
his wit. 

The tomahawk and scalping-knife were no part of his collo- 
quial apparatus. He felt no pleasure in seeing the victim 
writhe under his stroke. The benignity of his spirit could not 
have borne such a sight without torture. He found himself 
happiest in communicating happiness to others. His conver- 
sation was instructive and delightful ; stately where it should 
be so, but in general, easy, familiar, sprightly, and entertaining ; 
always, however, good-humoured, and calculated to amuse 
without wounding. 

As a specimen of this light and good-natured pleasantry, the 
following anedote has been furnished : Mr. Henry, together 
with Mr. Richard H. Lee, and several other conspicuous mem- 
bers of the assembly, were invited to pass the evening and 
night at the house of Mr. Edmund Randolph, in the neighbour- 
hood of Richmond. Mr. Lee, who was as brilliant and copious 
in conversation as in debate, had amused the company to a very 
late hour, by descanting on the gertius of Cervantes, particu 
larly as exhibited in his chef d"* (Buvre, Don Quixote. 

The dissertation had been continued rather too long : the 
company began to yawn, when Mr. Henry, who had observed 
it, although Mr. Lee had not, rose slowly from his chair, and 
remarked as he walked across the room, that Don Quixote was 
certainly a most excellent work, and most skilfully adapted to 
the purpose of the author: "but," said he, "Mr. Lee," stop- 
ping before him, with" a most significant archness of look, 
" you have overlooked in your eulogy, one of the finest things 
in the book." " What is '^that ?" asked Mr. Lee. " It is," said 
Mr. Henry, " that divine exclamation of Sancho, ' Blessed be 
the m.an that first invented sleep : it covers one all over, like a 
cloak.^^^ Mr. Lee took the hint; and the company broke up 
in good humour. 

His quick and true discernment of characters, and his pre- 
Bcien?^ of political events, were very much admired. TL-^ 



384 wirt's life of 

following examples of each, have been furnished by Mr. 
Pope: — 

Mr. Gallatin came to Virginia when a very young man : he 
was obscure and unknown, and spoke the English language so 
badly, that it was with difficulty he could be understood. He 
was engaged in some agency which made it necessary to pre- 
sent a petition to the assembly, and endeavoured to interest the 
leading members in its fate, by attempting to explain, out of 
floors, its merits and justice. But they could not understand 
him well enough to feel any interest either for him or his peti- 
tion. In this hopeless condition he waited on Mr. Henry, and 
soon felt that he was in different hands. 

. Mr. Henry, on his part, was so delighted with the interview, 
that he spoke of Mr. Gallatin everywhere in raptures — "he 
declared him, without hesitation or doubt, to be the most sen 
sible and best informed man he had ever conversed with — he is 
to he sure,'''' said he, " a most astonishing man /" The reader 
well knows how eminently Mr. Gallatin has since fulfilled this 
character; and considering the very disadvantageous circum- 
stances under which he was seen by Mr. Henry, is certainly 
a striking proof of the superior sagacity of the observer. 

In relation to his political foresight, the following anecdote 
is in Mr. Pope's own words: — "In the year 1798, after Bona- 
parte had annihilated five Austrian armies, and, flushed with 
victory, was carrying away everything before him, I heard Mr. 
Henry in a public company observe, (shaking his head after his 
impressive manner) — ' It won't all do ! the present generation 
in France is so debased by a long despotism, they possess so 
few of the virtues that constitute the life and soul of republi- 
canism, that they are incapable of forming a correct and just 
estimate of rational liberty. 

** * Their revolution will terminate differently from what you 
expect — their state of anarchy will be succeeded by despotism ; 
and I should not be surprised, if the very man at whose victo- 
ries you now rejoice, should, Cesar-like, subvert the liberties 
of his country. All who know me,' continued Mr. Henry, 
*know that I am a firm advocate for liberty and republicanism ; 
I believe I have given some evidences of this. I wish it may 
not be so, but I am afraid the event will justify this prediction.' " 

The following is the fullest description which the author has 
been able to procure of Mr. Ilenry's person. He was nearly 
six feet high ; spare, and what may be called rawboned, with a 
slight stoop of the shoulders — his complexion was dark, sun- 
burnt, and sallow, without any appearance of blood in his 
cheeks — his countenance grave, thoughtful, penetrating, and 
strongly marked with the lineaments of deep reflection — the 



PATRICK HENRY. 285 

earnestness of his manner, united with an habitual contraction or 
knitting of his brows, and those lines of thought with which 
his face was profusely furrowed, gave to his countenance, at 
some times, the appearance of severity — yet such was the 
power which he had over its expression, that he could shake 
off from it in an instant, all the sternness of winter, and robe it 
in the brightest smiles of spring. 

His forehead was high and straight ; yet forming a sufficient 
angle with the lower part of his face — his nose somewhat of the 
Roman stamp,though like that which we see in the bust of Cicero, 
it was rather long, than remarkable for its Cesarean form. Of 
the colour of his eyes, the accounts are almost as various as 
those which we have of the colour of the chameleon — they are 
said to have been blue, gray, what Lavater calls green, hazel, 
brown, and black — the fact seems to have been that they were of 
a bluish-gray, not large ; and being deeply fixed in his head, 
overhung by dark, long, and full eyebrows, and farther shaded 
by lashes that were both long and black, their apparent colour 
was as variable as the lights in which they were seen — but all 
concur in saying that they were, unquestionably, the finest fea- 
ture in his face — brilliant — full of spirit, and capable of the most 
rapidly- shifting and powerful expression — at one time piercing 
and terrible as those of Mars, and then again soft and tender 
as those of Pity herself — his cheeks were hollow — his chin 
long, but well* formed, and rounded at the end, so as to form a 
proper counterpart to the upper part of his face. 

" I find it difficult," says the correspondent from whom I 
have borrowed this portrait, " to describe his mouth ; in which 
there was nothing remarkable, except when about to express a 
modest dissent from some opinion on which he was comment- 
ing — he then had a sort of half-smile, in which the want of 
conviction was perhaps more strongly expressed, than the sa- 
tirical emotion, which probably prompted it. " His manner and 
address to the court and jury might be deemed the excess of 
humility, diffidence, and modesty. 

" If, as rarely happened, he had occasion to answer any re- 
mark from the bench, it was impossible for Meekness herself 
to assume a manner less presumptuous — but in the smile of 
which I have been speaking, you might anticipate the want of 
conviction, expressed in his answer, at the moment that he 
submitted to the superior wisdom of the court, with a grace that 
would have done honour to Westminster hall. In his reply to 
counsel, his remarks on the evidence, and on the conduct of the 
parties, he preserved the same distinguished deference and po- 
liteness, still accompanied, however, by the never-failing in- 
dex of this skeptical smile, where the occasion prompted." 



286 wirt's life of 

In short, his features were manly, bold, and well-proportioned, 
full of intelligence, and adapting themselves intuitively to every 
sentiment of his mind, and every feeling of his heart. His 
voice was not remarkable for its sweetness ; but it was firm, of 
full volume, andrather melodious than otherwise. Its charms 
consisted in the mellowness and fulness of its note, the ease and 
variety of its inflections, the distinctness of its articulation, the 
fine effect of its emphasis, the felicity with which it attuned 
itself to every emotion, and the vast compass which enabled it 
to range through the whole empire of human passion, from the 
deep and tragic half whisper of horror, to the wildest excla- 
mation of overwhelming rage. 

In mild persuasion, it was as soft and gentle as the zephyr 
of spring; while in rousing his co.untrymen to arms, the win- 
ter storm that roars along the troubled Baltic, was not more 
awfully sublime. It was at all times perfectly under his com- 
mand ; or rather, indeed, it seemed to command itself and to 
modulate its notes, most happily to the sentiment he was utter- 
ing. It never exceeded, or fell short of the occasion. There 
was none of that long-continued and deafening vociferation, 
which always takes place, when an ardent speaker has lost 
possession of himself — no monotonous clangour, no discord- 
ant shriek. 

Without being strained, it had that body and enunciation 
which filled the most distant ear, without distressing those 
which were nearest him: hence it never became cracked or 
hoarse, even in his longest speeches, but retained to the last 
all its 'clearness and fulness of intonation, all the delicacy of 
its inflection, all the charms of its emphasis, and enchanting 
variety of its cadence. 

His delivery was perfectly natural and well timed. It has 
indeed been said, that, on his first rising, there was a species 
of suh-cantus very observable by a stranger, and rather disa- 
greeable to him ; but that in a very few moments even this it- 
self became agreeable, and seemed, indeed, indispensable to the 
full effect of his peculiar diction and conceptions. In point ot 
time, he was very happy : there was no slow and heavy drag- 
ging, no quaint and measured drawling. With equidistant pace, 
no stumbling and floundering among the fractured members of 
deranged and broken periods, no undignified hurry and trepida- 
tion, no recalling and recasting of sentences as he went along, 
no retraction of one word and substitution of another not bet- 
ter, and none of those affected bursts of almost inarticulate 
impetuosity, which betray the rhetorician rather than display 
the orator. 

On the contrary, ever self-collected, deliberate and dignified. 



PATRICK HENRY. ^7 

he seemed to have looked through the whole period before he 
commenced its delivery ; and hence his delivery was smooth, 
and firm, and well accented ; slow enough to talie along with 
him the dullest hearer, and yet so commanding, that the quick 
had neither the power nor the disposition to get the start of 
him. Thus he gave to every thought its full and appropriate 
force ; and to every image all its radiance and beauty. 

No speaker ever understood better than Mr. Henry the true 
use and power of the pause : and no one ever practised it with 
happier effect. His pauses were never resorted to for the pur- 
pose of investing an insignificant thought with false import- 
ance ; much less were they ever resorted to as Si finesse to gain 
time for thinking. The hearer was never disposed to ask, 
*' why that pause?" nor to measure its duration by a reference 
to his watch. On the contrary, it always came at the very 
moment, when he would himself have wished it, in order to 
weigh the striking and important thought which had just been 
uttered ; and the interval was always filled by the speaker with 
a matchless energy of look, which drove the thought home 
through the mind and through the heart. 

His gesture, and this varying play of his features and voice, 
were so excellent, so exquisite that many have referred his 
power as an orator principally to that cause ; yet this was all 
his own, and his gesture, particularly, of so peculiar a cast, 
that it is said it would have become no other man. I do not 
learn that it was very abundant ; for there was no trash about it; 
none of those false motions to which undisciplined speakers are 
so generally addicted; no chopping nor sawing of the air; no 
thumping of the bar to express an earnestness, which was 
much more powerfully, as well as more elegantly expressed by 
his eye and countenance. Whenever he moved his arm, or 
his hand, or even his finger, or changed the position of his 
body, it was always to some purpose ; nothing was ineflicient ; 
everything told ; every gesture, every attitude, every look was 
emphatic ; all was animation, energy, and dignity. 

Its great advantage consisted in this — that various, bold, and 
original as it was, it never appeared to be studied, affected, or 
theatrical, or "to overstep," in the smallest degree, "the mod 
esty of nature ;" for he never made a gesture, or assumed an 
attitude,which did not seem imperiously demanded by the occa 
sion. Every look, every motion, every paUse, every start was 
completely filled and dilated by the thought which he was ut- 
tering, and seemed indeed to form a part of the thought itgelf. 
His action, however strong, was never vehement. He was 
never seen rushing forward, shoulder foremost, fury 1&I his 
countenance, and phrensy in his voice, as if to overturn thf 



288 WIRTS LIFE OP 

bar, and charge his audience sword in hand. His judgment 
was too manly and too solid, and his taste too true, to permit 
him to indulge in any such extravagance. 

His good sense and his self-possession never deserted him. 
In the loudest storm of declamation, in the fiercest blaze ot 
passion, there was a dignity and temperance which gave it 
seeming. He had the rare faculty of imparting to his hearers 
all the excess of his own feelings, and all the violence and tu- 
mult of his emotions, all the dauntless spirit of his resolution, 
and all the energy of his soul, without any sacrifice of his own 
personal dignity, and without treating his hearers otherwise 
than as rational beings. He was not the orator of a day ; and 
therefore sought not to build his fame on the sandy basis of a 
false taste, fostered, if not created, by himself. He spoke for 
immortality ; and therefore raised the pillars of his glory on 
the only solid foundation — the rock of Nature. 

So much has been already said, incidentally, of his attain- 
ments, and the character of his mind, both as a statesman and 
an orator, that little remains to be added in a general way. As 
a statesman, the quality which strikes us most is his political 
intrepidity : and yet it has sometimes been objected to him, that 
he waited on every occasion, to see which way the popular cur- 
rent was sitting, when he would artfully throw himself into it, 
and seem to guide its course. Nothing can be more incorrect : 
it would be easy to multiply proofs to refute the charge ; but I 
shall content myself with a few which are of general notoriety. 

1. The American revolution is universally admitted to have 
begun in the upper circles of society. It turned on principles 
too remote' and abtruse for vulgar apprehension or considera- 
tion. Had it depended on the unenlightened mass of the com- 
munity, no doubt can be entertained at this day, that the tax 
imposed by parliament would have been paid without a ques- 
tion. Since, then, the upper circle of society did not take its 
impulse from the people, the only remaining inquiry is, who 
gave the revolutionary impulse to that circle itself? It was 
unquestionably Patrick Henry. 

This is affirmed by Mr. Jeflferson ; it is demonstrated by the 
resistance given to Mr. Henry's measures, by those who were 
afterward the stanchest friends of the revolution ; it is farther 
proved, by the sentiment before noticed, with which Doctor 
Franklin (who was then considered as the first American states- 
man) dismissed Mr. IngersoU on his departure from London ; 
a sentiment, which evinces beyond doubt, that Doctor Franklin 
considered resistance to the British power to be, at that time, 
premature; and finally, this honour is assigned to Mr. Henry, 
I perceive, by a late interesting historian of Massachusets, the 



PATRICK HENRY. 399 

only state which has ever pretended to dispute the palm with 
Virginia. 

The historian to wliom I allude, is Mrs. Mercy Warren, who 
is said to be the widow of the celebrated General Warren, 
the hero of Bunker's Hill. These are her words: — "The 
iiouse of burgesses of Virginia were the first who formally re- 
solved against the encroachments of power, and the unwar- 
rantable designs of the British parliament. The novelty of 
their procedure, and the boldness of spirit that marked the 
resolutions of that assembly, at once astonished and discon- 
certed the officers of the crown, and the supporters of the 
measures of administration. These resolutions were ush- 
ered into the house on the thirtieth of May, one thousan(^ 
seven hundred and sixty-five, by Patrick Henry, Esq., a 
young gentleman of the law, till then unknov/n in political life. 
He was a man possessed of strong powers, much professional 
knowledge, and of such abilities as qualified him for the exi- 
gences of the day. Fearless of the cry of treason, echoed 
against him from several quarters, he justified the measure and 
supported the resolves, in a speech that did honour both to his 
understanding and his patriotism," &c. Mrs. Warren's History 
of the American Revolution, vol. i.,p. 28. 

On this great occasion, then, it is manifest, that he did not 
wait for the popular current; but on the contrary, that it was 
he alone, who, by his single power moved the mighty mass of 
stagnant waters, and changed the silent lake into a roaring tor- 
rent. When it is remembered too, that he was then young and 
obscure, and of course without personal influence — that this 
step was the result of his own solitary reflection, and that he 
was perfectly aware of the personal danger which must attend 
it — we can require nothing farther to satisfy us, that he was a 
bold, original, independent politician, who thought for himself, 
and pursued the dictates of his own judgment, wholly regard- 
Jess of personal consequences. 

2. Again, in the spring of 1775, that upper circle, which still 
headed the revolution, were disposed to acquiesce in the plun- 
der of the magazine, and exerted their utmost eflbrts to allay 
the ferment which it had excited. They had, in fact succeeded ; 
and the people were everywhere composed, save within the im- 
mediate sphere of Mr. Henry's influence. The reader has already 
seen, that it was he who on that occasion excited the people, not 
who was excited by them ; that he put them into motion, and 
avowed to his confidential friends, at the time, the motives of 
policy by which he was actuated; that he placed himself at 
the head of an armed band, which he had himself convened for 
the purpose ; and in spite of the entreaties and supplications 

25 



490 WIRT 5 LIFE OF 

of the patriots at Williamsbflrgli, and in defiance of the threats 
of Dunmore and his mynnidons, pressed firmly and intrepidly 
on, until the object of his expedition Avas completely obtained. 

3. So also in the state convention, the same year, the old 
patriotic leaders were disposed still to rely on the efficacy of 
petitions, memorials, and remonstrances; it was Mr. Henry 
who proposed, and in spite of their opposition (which was of 
so strenuous and serious a character, that one of them in ma- 
king it, is said to have shed tears most profusely) carried the 
bold measure of arming the militia. This was not dictated by 
the people. 

The fact was, that at that day, the people placed themselves 
in the hands of their more enlightened friends ; they never 
ventured to prescribe either the time, the manner, or the meas- 
ure of resistance ; and there can be no room for a candid doubt 
that, but for the bold spirit and overpowering eloquence of 
Patrick Henry, the people would have followed the pacific 
counsels of Mr. Randolph, Mr. Nicholas, Mr. Pendleton, Mr. 
"Wythe, and other men of acknowledged talents and virtue. 

it was Mr. Henry, therefore, who led both the people and 
their former leaders. The latter, indeed came on so reluc- 
tantly at first, that they may be said to have been rather drag- 
ged along than led ; they did come, however, and acquiring 
warmth by their motion, made ample amends thereafter foi 
their early hesitation. 

The author has no intention, by these remarks, to impair in 
the smallest degree, the well-earned reputation of those vete- 
ran statesmen. They had commenced the opposition to the 
stamp act, and the other obnoxious acts of the British parlia- 
ment, before Mr. Henry made his appearance as a politician ; 
they had commenced it too, on the same grounds, and would, 
probably, at some later period, have been wrought up by theii 
own principles and feelings, to a forcible resistance to those 
measures. 

But the statements above are unquestionably correct ; they 
did not approve of the immediate application of force ; Mr. 
Henry's policy was condemned by them as rash and precipi- 
tate. The author is in possession of an original letter from 
one of these statements, in which Mr. Henry is expressly and 
directly accused of having precipitated the revolution, against 
the judgment of the older and cooler patriots. "Events, how- 
ever," as we have seen, " favoured the bolder measures of Mr. 
Henry," and proved his policy to be the best. 

4. Abou the close of the war, again, when he proposed to 
permit the return of that obnoxious class of men called Brit- 
ish refugees and Scotch tories, did he follow the popular cur- 



PATRICK HENRY. 291 

tent? So far from it, that he stemmed the current, and turneci 
back its course, by the power of his resistance. 

5. So in the case of the federal constitution, whither did the 
current of the American people tend ? Most certainly to its 
adoption, yet Mr. Henry, to use his own language, " with 
manly firmness, and in spite of an erring world," with the re- 
vered Washington at their head, opposed its adoption with all 
the powers of his eloquence. 

The truth seems to be, that this charge is only a variation 
of that conveyed by the opprobrious epithets of demagogue 
and factious tribune, which we have seen that his rival long 
since sought to fasten upon him ; and there can be little doubt, 
that it proceeded from the wri things and contortions of the 
same agonized envy. That a poor young man, issuing from 
his native woods, unknown, unfriended, and comparatively un- 
lettered, should hav« been able, by the mere force of unassist- 
ed nature, to break to pieces the strong political confederacy 
which then ruled the country, to annihilate all the arts and 
^716556 of parliamentary intrigue; to eclipse by his sagacity, 
the experience of age ; and, by the sole strength of his native 
genius, to throw into the shade all the hard-earned attainments 
of literature and science, was entirely too humiliating to be 
borne in silence. 

It was necessary, therefore, to resort to some solution of 
this phenomenon which should at once reduce the honours of 
this plebeian up-start, and sooth the wounded feelings of those 
whose pride he had brought down. Hence it became fashion- 
able, in the higher circles, to speak of Mr. Henry as a design- 
ing demagogue^ a factious trihune, who carried his points not 
by fair and open debate, but by violent and inflammatory ap- 
peals to the worst passions of the multitude ; and who fre- 
quently gave himself the air of leading the people, when in 
truth he was merely following their own blind lead. 

This cant has had its day, and its propagators. Truth has 
set the subject to rights. Mr. Henry is alleged, by those 
who had the best opportunities of knowing him, to have been 
not inferior, either in public or private virtue, to any patriot of 
the revolution : and he was confessedly superior to them all, 
in that combination of bold, hardy, adventurous, splendid, and 
solid qualifications, which are so peculiarly fitted to revolu- 
tionary times. 

" He left," says Judge Winston, " no manuscripts." This 
was to have been expected. We have seen that he could not 
bear the labour of writing ; nor, indeed, of that long-continued, 
coherent, and methodical thinking, without which, no success- 
ful composition, of any extent, can be produced. He thought. 



292 WIRT^S LIFE OF 

indeed, a great deal; but his tliinldng was too desultory and 
irregular to take the form of composition. 

His mind had never been disciplined to wait upon his pen — 
it still moved on — and its prismatic beauties were as evanescent 
as they were beautiful. His imagination "bodied forth the 
forms of things" much more rapidly than his unpractised pen 
could " turn them to shapes ;" and it is not improbable, that 
his own observation of the difference between the vigour with 
which he thought, and the comparative decrepitude with 
which he wrote, disgusted him with his first attempts, and pre- 
vented their repetition. 

Yet this habit which he had of thinking for himself, and 
looking directly at every subject, with the natural eyes of his 
understanding, without using what has been called the specta- 
cles of books, was perhaps of advantage to him, both as a 
statesman and an orator : as a statesman, it possibly exempted 
him from that common error of scientific theorists, of for- 
cing resemblances between the present and some past historical 
era, and accommodating their measures to this imaginary 
identity; by his mode of considering subjects, no circumstance 
was either sunk or magnified, or distorted, in order to bend 
the case to a fanciful hypothesis ; nor, in deciding what was 
proper to be done in America, did he look to see what had 
been found expedient at Athens or Rome. 

On the contrary, knowing well the people with whom he 
had to deal, of what they were capable, and what was neces- 
sary to their happiness, how much they could bear, and how 
much achieve, and looking immediately at the subject, (what- 
ever it might be,) with that piercing vision, that solid judgment 
and ready resource, which characterized his mind — he seemed 
to seize in every case, rather " luckily than laboriously,** the 
course which of all others was surest of success. 

In short, this habit made him an original, sound and practi- 
cal statesman, instead of being a learned, dreaming, and vision- 
ary theorist. Not that Mr. Henry was deficient in historical 
knowledge; he had enough of it for all the useful purposes either 
of analogy or illustration ; but he never permitted it to inter- 
cept his proper view of the subject, or to take the lead in sug- 
gesting what was fit to be done. This he chose rather to de- 
rive from the nature of the case itself, and the character of the 
people among whom that case occurred. 

This habit of relying more on his own meditations than on 
books, was, also, perhaps, a service to him as an orator : for 
by this course, he avoided the beaten paths and roads of 
thought; and instead of exhibiting in his speeches old idea? 
newly vamped up, and ancient beauties tricked off in mod 



PATRICK HENRY. 293 

ern tinsel, his arguments, sentiments, and figures, had all 
ihat freshness and novelty which are so universally captivating. 

In what did his peculiar excellence as an orator consist? in 
what consisted that unrivalled power of speaking, which all 
who ever heard him admit him to have possessed? The 
reader is already apprized, that the author of these sketches 
never had the advantage of hearing Mr. Henry, and that no 
entire speech of his was ever extant, either in print or writing: 
hence, there are no materials for minute and exact analysis. 
This inquiry, however, is natural, and has been directed, with- 
out success, to many of the most discriminating of Mr. Hen- 
ry's admirers. Their answers are as various as the complex- 
ion of their own characters ; each preferring that property 
from which he had himself derived the most enjoyment. 
Some ascribe his excellence wholly to his manner ; others, in 
great part, to the originality and soundness of his matter. 
And among the admirers, in both classes, there are not two 
who concur in assigning the pre-eminence to the same quality. 

Of his matter, one will admire the plainness and strength 
of his reasoning; another, the concentrated spirit of his aphor- 
isms ; a third, his wit ; a fourth, his pathos ; a fifth, the intrin- 
sic beauty of his 'imagination : so in regard to his manner, 
one will place his excellence in his articulation and emphasis ; 
a second, in the magic power with which he infused the tones 
of his voice into the nerves of his hearers, and riveted their at- 
tention. The truth therefore, probably is, that it was not in any 
singular charm, either of matter or manner, that we are to 
look for the secret of his power; but that like Pope's defini* 
tion of beauty, it was *' the joint force and full result of all." 

If, however, we are to consider as really and entirely his, 
those speeches which have already been given in his name to 
the public, or are now prepared for them, there can be no diffi- 
culty in deciding, that his power must have consisted princi- 
pally in his delivery. We know what extraordinary effects 
have been produced by the mere manner of an orator, without 
any uncommon weight or worth of matter. 

" Friar Narni, a capuchin, was so remarkable for his elo- 
quence, that his hearers, after a sermon, cried out mercy in the 
streets, as he passed home : and thirty bishops, starting up 
under a discourse, hurried home to their respective diocesses : 
yet, when his sermons came to be published, they were thought 
to be unworthy of his reputation ; which shows how much de- 
pends on action ; and how correct the saying of Demosthenes 
was on that suDjecc."*' — Bayle. Article Narni. 

We have the authority, however, of those who heard the 
identical speeches now professed to be given as his, for de- 

35* 



294 wirt's life of 

daring, that they are an e:5tremely imperfect representation 
of them ; and their ability to correct them so frequently from 
memory, establishes the fact, that it was not the charm of de- 
livery merely, which constituted the difference between the re- 
port and the original. 

This is not the only instance in which a great orator hag 
been injured, by imperfect attempts to represent him : for 
(to say nothing of those modern proofs, which will easily 
occur to the reader) we are told that the great Pericles 
himself met with a similar fate. " Some harangues of Peri- 
cles were still extant in Quintilian's time ; but that learned 
rhetorician, finding them disproportioned to the high reputa- 
tion of this great man, approved the opinion of those who 
looked upon them as a supposititious work. An indifferent 
harangue, however, being recited by an excellent orator, may 
charm the hearers. Action is almost all r'' Article Pericles. 

Candour and justice, however, require us to repeat, that Mr. 
Robertson's reports are unquestionable, in point of good faith ; 
and that they are highly valuable, on account of the accuracy and 
fidelity with which they are believed to have preserved the 
substance of the debates. It is with extreme regret that the 
author has made a single comment to their disadvantage ; but 
justice to Mr. Henry has made it indispensable. 

The basis of Mr. Henry's intellectual character was strong 
natural sense. His knowledge of human nature was, as we 
have seen, consummate. His wisdom was that of observation, 
rather than of reading. His fancy, although sufficiently preg- 
nant to furnish supplies for the occasion, was not so exuberant 
as to oppress him with its productions. He was never guilty 
of the fault, with which Corinna is said to have reproached her 
rival Pindar, of pouring his vase of flowers all at once upon 
the ground ; on the contrary, their beauty and their excellence 
were fully observed, from their rarity, and the happiness with 
which they were distributed through his speeches. 

His feelings were strong, yet completely under his command ; 
they rose up to the occasion, but were never suflTered to over- 
flow it; his language was often careless, sometimes incor- 
rect ; yet upon the whole it was pure and perspicuous, giv- 
ing out his thoughts in full and clear proportion ; free from af- 
fectation, and frequently beautiful ; strong without eflTort, an^ 
adapted to the occasion ; nervous in argument, burning in pas- 
sion, and capable of matching the loftiest flights of his genius. 

It may perhaps assist the reader's conception of Mr. Henry's 
peculiar cast of eloquence, to state the points in which he dif- 
fered from some other orators. Those which distinguished 
him from Mr. Lee have been already exhibited. Colonel Innis's 



PATRICK HEiNRY. 295 

«ianner was also very different. His habitual indole.ice fol- 
lowed him into debate ; he generally contented himself with a 
single view of his subject; but that was given with irresistible 
power. 

His eloquence was indeed a mighty and a roaring torrent ; it 
had not, however, that property of Horace's stream, labitur et 
lahetur, in omne voluhilis cBvum — on the contrary, it com- 
monly ran by in half an hour. But it bore a striking resem- 
blance to the eloquence of Lord Chatham ; it was a short but 
bold and most terrible assault — a vehement, impetuous and 
overwhelming burst — a magnificent meteor, which shot majes- 
tically across the heavens, from pole to pole, and straight ex- 
pired in a glorious blaze. 

Mr. Henry, on the contrary, however indolent in his gene- 
ral life, was never so in debate, where the occasion called foi 
exertion. He rose against the pressure, with the most uncon- 
querable perseverance. He held his subject up in every light 
m which it could be placed ; yet always with so much power, 
and so much beauty, as never to weary his audience, but on the 
contrary to delight them. He had more art than Colonel Innis : 
he appealed to every motive Of interest — urged every argu- 
ment that could convince — pressed every theme of persuasion — 
awakened every feeling, and roused every passion to his aid. 
He had more variety, too, in his manner ; sometimes he was 
very little above the tone of conversation ; at others in the 
highest strain of epic sublimity. 

His course was of longer continuance — his flights better 
sustained, and more diversified, both in their direction, and 
velocity. He rose like the thunder-bearer of Jove, when he 
mounts on strong and untiring wing, to sport in fearless majesty 
over the troubled deep — now sweeping in immense and rapid 
circles — then suddenly arresting his grand career, and hover- 
ing aloft in tremulous and terrible suspense — at one instant, 
plunged amid the foaming waves — at the next, reascending on 
high, to play undaunted among the lightnings of heaven, or soar 
toward the sun. 

He differed too, from those orators of Great Britain, with 
whom we have become acquainted by their printed speeches. 
He had not the close method and high polish of those of Eng- 
land ; nor the exuberant imagery which distinguishes those of 
Ireland. On the contrary, he was loose, irregular, desultory — 
sometimes rough and abrupt — careless in connecting the parts 
of his discourse, but grasping whatever he touched with gigan- 
tic strength. In short, he was the Orator of Nature ; and 
such a one as Nature might not blush to avow. 

If the reader shall still demand how he acquired those won- 



296 FATRICK HENRY. 

derful powers of speaking wWch have been assigned to him, 
we can only answer, with Gray, that they were the gift of 
Heaven — the birthright of genius. 

" Thme too, these keys, immortal boy ! 
This can unlock the gates of joy ; 
Of horror, that, ard thrilling fears, 
Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears." 

It has been said of Mr. Henry, by Mr. John Randolph, of 
Roanoke, with inimitable felicity, that '* he was Shakspeare 
and Garrick combined !" Let the reader then imagine the 
wonderful talents of those two men united in the same indi- 
vidual, and transferred from scenes of fiction to the business 
of real life, and he will have formed some conception of the 
eloquence of Patrick Henry. In a word, he was one of thos^ 
perfect prodigies of Nature, of whom very few have been pro- 
duced since the foundations of the earth were laid ; and of 
him may it be said, as truly as of any one that ever existed : — 

** He was a man, take him for all in all, 
We ne^er shall look upon his like anain" 



APPENDIX 



NOTE A. 



It appears by the journals of the house of burgesses, of the 14th November, 
seventeen hundred and sixty-four, (page 38.) that a committee was appointed 
to draw up the following address, memorial, and remonstrance ; which com- 
mittee was composed of the following persons, to wit : Mr. Attorney, (Peyton 
Randolph,) Mr. Richard Henry Lee, Mr. Landon Carter, Mr. Wythe, Mr. 
Edmund Pendleton, Mr. Benjamin Harrison, Mr. Gary, and Mr. Fleming, to 
whom, afterward, Mr. Bland was added. The address to the king is from the 
pen of the attorney.* 

" To the king^s most excellent Majesty. 
•' Most Gracious Sovereign, 

" We, your majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the council and burgesses 
of your ancient colony and dominion of Virginia, now met in general assembly, 
beg leave to assure your majesty of our firm and inviolable attachment to your 
sacred person and government ; and as your faithful subjects here have at all 
times been zealous to demonstrate this truth, by a ready compliance with the 
royal requisitions during the late war, by which a heavy and oppressive debt 
of near half a million had been incurred, so at this time they implore permis- 
sion to approach the throne with humble confidence, and to entreat that your 
majesty will be graciously pleased to protect our people of this colony in the 
enjoyment of then: ancient and inestimable right of being governed by such 
laws, respecting their internal polity and taxation, as are derived from their 
own consent, with the approbation of their sovereign or his substitute : a right 
which, as men, and descendants of Britons, they have ever quietly possessed, 
since, first by royal permission and encouragement, they left the mother king- 
dom to extend its commerce and dominion. 

■' Your majesty's dutiful subjects of Virginia most humbly and unanimously 
hope, that this invaluable birthright, descended to them from their ancestors, 
and in which they have been protected by your royal predecessors, will not be 
suffered to receive an injury under the reign of your sacred majesty, already 
so illustriously distinguished by your gracious attention to the liberties of the 
people. 

*' That your majesty may long live to make nations happy, is the ardent 
prayer of your faithful subjects, the council and burgesses of Virginia." 

The author cannot learn who drew the following memorial ; but from tne 
style of the composition, compared with the members of the committee, and 
the distribution of its other labours, he thinks it probable that it was Mr. P»«»- 
dleton ; possibly Mr. Bland. 

rr 'On the authority of Mr. Jefferson. 



298 APPENDIX. 



•* To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in Parliamenl 
assembled :— 

** The Memorial of the Council and Burgesses of Virginia, now met in Genera, 

Assembly, 
'* Humbly represents, 

" That your memorialists hope an application to your lordships, the fixed 
and hereditary guardians of British liberty, will not be thought improper at this 
time, when measures are proposed, subversive, as they conceive, of that free- 
dom, which all men, especially those who derive their constitution from Britain, 
have a right to enjoy ; and they flatter themselves that your lordships will not 
look upon them as objects so unworthy your attention, as to regard any impro- 
priety in the form or manner of their application, for your lordships' protection, 
of their "ust and undoubted rights as Britons. 

" It cannot be presumption in your memorialists to call themselves by this 
distinguished name, since they are descended from Britons, who left their 
native country to extend its territory and dominion, and who, happily for 
Britain, and as your memorialists once thought, for themselves too, effected 
this purpose. As our ancestors brought with them every right and privilege 
they could with justice claim in their mother kingdom, their descendants may 
conclude, they cannot be deprived of those rights without injustice. 

"Your memorialists conceive it to be a fundamental principle of the British 
constitution, without which freedom can nowhere exist, that the people are 
not subject to any taxes but such as are laid on them by their own consent or 
by those who are legally appointed to represent them : property must become 
too precarious for the genius of a free people which can be taken from them 
at the will of others, who cannot know what taxes such people can bear, or 
the easiest mode of raising them ; and who are r" '-^ that restraint, which 
is the greatest security against a burdensome taxation, when the representa- 
tives themselves must be affected by every tax imposed on the people. 

" Your memorialists are therefore led into an humble confidence, that your 
.ordships will not think any reason sufficient to support such a power, in the 
British parliament, where the colonies cannot be represented : a power never 
before constitutionally assumed, and which, if they have a right to exercise on 
any occasion, must necessarily establish this melancholy truth, that the inhab- 
itants of the colonies are the slaves of Britons from whom they are descended : 
and from whom they might expect every indulgence that the obligations of 
interest and affection can entitle them to. 

" Your memorialists have been invested with the right of taxing their own 
people from the first establishment of a regular government in the colony, and 
requisitions have been constantly made to them by their sovereigns, on all 
occasions when the assistance of the colony was thought necessary to preserve 
the British interest in America ; from whence they must conclude they cannot 
now be deprived of a right they have so long enjoyed, and which they have 
never forfeited. 

" The expenses incurred during the last war, in compliance with the demands 
on this colony by our late and present most gracious sovereigns, have involved 
us in a debt of near half a million, a debt not likely to decrease under the 
continued expense we are at, in providing for the security of the people against 
the mcursions of our savage neighbours ; at a time when the low state of out 
staple commodity, the total want of specie, and the late restrictions upon the 
trade of the colonies, render the circumstances of the people extremely distress 
ful ; and which, if taxes are accumulated upon them by the British parliament, 
will make them truly deplorable. 



APPENDIX. 299 

" Your memorialists cannot suggest to themselves any reason why they 
should not still be trusted with the property ot their people, with whose abilities, 
and the least burdensome mode of taxing, (with great deference to the superior 
\visdom of parliament,) they must be best acquamted. 

" Your memorialists hope they shall not be suspected of being actuated, on 
this occasion, by any principles but those of the purest loyalty and affection, as 
they always endeavoured by their conduct to demonstrate, that they consider 
their connexion with Great Britain, the seat of liberty, as their greatest hap- 
piness. 

" The duty they owe to themselves and their posterity, lays your memorial- 
ists under the necessity of endeavouring to establish their constitution upon its 
proper foundation ; and they do most humbly pray your lordships to take this 
subject into your consideration with the attention that is due to the well-being 
of the colonies, on which the prosperity of Great Britain does, in a great 
measure, depend." 

Mr. Wythe was the author of the following remonstrance. " It was done 
with so much freedom, that, as he told me himself, his colleagues of the com- 
mittee shrunk from it as wearmg the aspect of treason, and smoothed its 
features to its present form."* 

" To the Honourable the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of Cheat Britain, in 
Parliament assembled : — 

" The Remonstrance of the Council and Burgesses of Virginia. 

'• It appearing, by the printed votes of the house of commons of Great 
Britain in parliament assembled, that in a committee of the whole house the 
seventeenth day of March, last, it was resolved, that toward defending, pro- 
tecting, and securing the British colonies and plantations in America, it may 
be proper to charge certain stamp duties in the said colonies and plantation8 ; 
and it being apprehended that the same subject, which was then declined, may 
be resumed and further pursued in a succeeding session, the council and bur- 
gesses of Virginia, met in general assembly, judge it their indispensable duty, 
in a respectful manner, but with decent firmness, to remonstrate against such 
a measure ; that at least a cession of those rights, which in their opinion must 
oe infringed by that procedure, may not be inferred from their silence, at so 
important a crisis. 

" They conceive it is essential to British liberty, that laws, imposing taxes 
on the people, ought not to be made without the consent of representatives 
chosen by themselves ; who, at the same time that they are acquainted with 
the circumstances of their constituents, sustain a portion of the burden laid on 
them. The privileges, inherent in the persons who discovered and settled 
these regions, could not be renounced or forfeited by their removal hither, 
not as vagabonds or fugitives, but licensed and encouraged by their prince, 
and animated with a laudable desire of enlarging the British dominion, and 
extending its commerce : on the contrary, it was secured to them and their 
descendants, with all other rights and immunities of British subjects, by a royal 
charter, which hath been invariably recognised and confirmed by his majesty 
and his predecessors, in their commissions to the several governors, granting a 
power, and prescribing a form of legislation ; according to which, laws for 
the administration of justice, and for the welfare and good government of the 
colony, have been hitherto enacted by the governor, council, and general 
assembly ; and to them, requisitions and applications for supplies have been 
directed by the crown. As an instance of the opinion which former sovereigns 
eatertained oi these rights and privileges, we beg leave to refer to three acts 

* Mr. Jefferson. 



300 APPENDIX. 

of the general assembly, passed in the- thirty-second year of the reign of King 
Charles II. (one of which is entitled ' An act for raising a public revenue foi 
the better support of the government of his majesty'' s colony of Virginia,'' impo- 
sing several duties for that purpose,) which being thought absolutely necessary, 
were prepared in England, and sent over by their then governor, the lord 
Culpepper, to be passed by the general assembly, with a full power to give 
the royal assent thereto ; and which were accordingly passed, after several 
amendments were made to them here ; thus tender was his majesty of the 
rights of his American subjects ; and the remonstrants do not discern by what 
distinction they can be deprived of that sacred birthright and most valuable 
inheritance by their fellow-subjects, nor with what propriety they can be taxed 
or afiected in their estates, by the parliament, wherein they are not, and indeed 
cannot constitutionally, be represented. 

"And if it were proper for the parliament to impose taxes on the colonies at 
all, which the remonstrants take leave to think would be inconsistent with the 
fundamental principles of the constitution, the exercise of that power, at this 
time, would be ruinous to Virginia, who exerted he-rself in the late war, it is 
feared beyond her strength, insomuch that to redeem the money granted for 
that exigence, her people are taxed for several years to come ; this, with the 
larger expenses incurred for defending the frontiers against the restless Indians, 
who have infested her as much since the peace as before, is so grievous, that 
an increase of the burthen would be intolerable ; especially as the people are 
very greatly distressed already from the scarcity of circulating cash among 
them, and from the little value of their staple at the British markets. 

"And it is presumed, that adding to that load which the colony now labours 
under, will not be more oppressive to her people than destructive of the inter- 
ests of Great Britain : for the plantation trade, confined as it is to the mother- 
country, hath been a principal means of multiplying and enriching her inhabit- 
ants ; and, if not too much discouraged, may prove an inexhaustible source of 
treasure to the nation. For satisfaction in this point, let the present state of 
the British fleets and trade be compared with what they were before the set- 
tlement of the colonies ; and let it be considered, that while property in land 
may be acquired on very easy terms, in the vast uncultivated territory of 
North America, the colonists will be mostly, if not wholly, employed in agri- 
culture ; whereby the exportation of their commodities to Great Britain, and 
the consumption of manufactures supplied from thence, will be daily increas- 
ing. But this most desirable connexion between Great Britain and her colo- 
nies, supported by such a happy intercourse of reciprocal benefits as is 
continually advancing the prosperity of both, must be interrupted, if the people 
of the latter, reduced to extreme poverty, should be compelled to manufacture 
those articles they have been hitherto furnished with from the former. 

" From these considerations, it is hoped that the honourable house of com- 
mons will not prosecute a measure which those who may suffer under it cannot 
but look upon as fitter for exiles driven from their native country, after igno- 
miniously forfeiting her favours and protection, than for the posterity of Britons, 
who have at all times been forward to demonstrate all due reverence to thft 
mother-kingdom ; and are so instrumental in promoting her glory and felicity ; 
and that British patriots will never consent to the exercise of any anti-consti- 
tutional power which, even in this remote corner, may be dangerous in its 
example to the interior parts of the British empire, and will certainly be 
detrimental to its commerce." 



APPENDIX. 301 



NOTE B. 



Council Chamber, October 17th, 1785, 
Sir — Since the last session of assembly, I have received sundry acts, reso- 
lutions, and other communications from congress, which I transmit to the 
general assembly, marked No. 1, and which will claim the attention of the 
legislature, according to their nature and importance, respectively. 

Tho execution of the militia law hath caused much embarrassment to the 
executive. Compelled to name all the field officers throughout the state, and 
possessing sufficient information as to the fitness of individuals for these offices 
in a few counties only, they were constrained to search out proper persons, by 
such means as accident furnished, and by letters addressed to the several 
counties. In some instances, the gentleman to whom they were addressed, 
refused to give any information. In many others, the answers came too late 
to avail ; the law directing the commissions to issue the first of April. In this 
situation, the business has been conducted : and from a partial knowledge ol 
characters in some counties, and a total ignorance of them in others, I am 
sensible many who are worthy of command have been passed by, and others 
less fit for office may have been commissioned. And notwithstanding a close 
attention has been given to this business, many of the counties have not yet 
been officered, for want of the recommendations of captains and subalterns. 

Finding that the arms and ammunition directed to be purchased, could not 
be procured except from beyond the sea, application has been made by me to 
Mr. Jefferson and the Marquis de la Fayette, requesting their assistance to Mr. 
Barclay, (who was commissioned to m?ke the purchase,) in accomplishing this 
important work ; and I have the satisfaction to find, that the affair is in such a 
train as to promise the speedy arrival of these much-wanted articles. For 
more full information respecting this transaction, I send you sundry letters, 
(No. 2,) by one of which you will see that our noble friend the marquis offers 
us his services, if there shall be occas.ion for them. 

I transmit, herewith, a letter from the honourable Mr. Hardy, covering a 
memorial to congress from sundry inhabitants of Washington county, praying 
the establishment of an independent state, to be bounded as is therein express- 
ed. The proposed limits include a vast extent of country in which we have 
numerous and very respectable settlements, which, in their growth, will form 
an invaluable barrier between this country and those who, in the course ol 
events, may occupy the vast plains westward of the mountains, some of whom 
may have views incompatible with our safety. Already the militia of that 
part of the state is among the most respectable we have '• and by these means 
it is, that the neighbouring Indians are awed into professions of friendship. 
But a circumstance has lately happened, which renders the possession of that 
territory, at the present time, indispensable to the peace and safety of Virginia : 
I mean the assumption of sovereign power by the western inhabitants of North 
Carolina. If these people, who, without consulting their own safety or any 
other authority known in the American constitution, have assumed govern- 
ment, and while unallied to us, and under no engagements to pursue the objects 
of the federal government, they shall be strengthened by the accession of so 
great a part of our country, consequences fatal to our repose will probably 
follow. It is to be observed, that the settlements of this new society stretch 
on to great extent in contact with ours in Washington county, and thereby 
expose our citizens to the contagion of that example, which bids fair to destroy 
the peace of North Carolina. 

In this state of things it is, that variety of informations have come to me, 
stating that several persons, but especially Col. Arthur Campble, have used 

26 



90(^ APPENDIX. 

their utmost endeavours, and with^ome success, to persuade the citizens in 
that quarter to break off from this commonwealth, and attach themselves to 
the newly-assumed government, or erect one distinct from it. And in order to 
effect this purpose, the equity and authority of the laws have been arraigned, 
the collection of the taxes impeded, and our national character impeached. 
But as I send you the several papers I have received on that subject, I need 
not enlarge further than remark that if this most important part of our territory 
be lopped off, we lose that barrier for which our people have long and often 
fought, that nursery of soldiers from which future armies may be levied, and 
through which it will be almost impossible for our enemies to penetrate : we 
shall aggrandize the new state, whose connexions, views, and designs we know 
not ; shall cease to be formidable to our savage neighbours, or respectable to 
our western settlements, at present and in future. 

While these and many other matters were contemplated by the executive, 
it is natural to suppose, the attempt for separation was discouraged by every 
lawful means ; the chief of which was, displacing such of the field officers of 
militia, in Washington county, as were active partisans for separation, in order 
to prevent the weight of office being cast in the scale against this state : to 
this end a proclamation was issued, declaring the militia law of the last session 
in force in that county, and appointments of officers were made agreeable to it. 

1 hope to be excused for expressing a wish, that the assembly, in deliberating 
on this affair, will prefer lenient measures in order to reclaim our erring fellow- 
citizens. Their taxes have run into three years' arrear, and, thereby, grown 
to an amount beyond the ability of many to discharge, while the system of 
our trade has been such, as to render their agriculture unproductive of money ; 
and I cannot but suppose, that if even the warmest supporters of separation 
had seen the mischievous consequences of it, they would have retracted ; and 
condemned that intemperance in their own proceedings, which opposition in 
sentiments is too apt to produce. 

A letter from the countess of Huntingdon, and another from Sir James Jay, 
expressing her intentions to attempt the civilization of the Indians, are also 
sent you. It will rest with the assembly to decide upon the means for execu- 
ting this laudable design, that reflects so much honour on that worthy lady. 

By a resolution of the last assembly, the auditors were prevented from liqui- 
dating the claims of the officers and soldiers, after the first day of May last. 
Although the wisdom of such a measure must be admitted, yet several cases 
have come to my knowledge where claims, founded upon the clearest principles 
of justice, have been rejected by reason of that restriction: and when I con- 
sider that the claimants will be found to consist, in considerable degree, of 
widows, orphans, and those who have been taken prisoners, I am persuaded 
the assembly will think that a rigorous adherence to the forement.oned resolu- 
tion is improper, and that justice will be done to the claims of those few, 
whose poverty, ignorance, or other misfortunes, prevented earlier applica- 
tions. 

By Mr. Ross's letter No. 5, the assembly will observe his demand against 
the state, and that it can be properly discussed only by the legislature. Al- 
though the post at Point of Fork has been long occupied, I cannot discover 
the least trace of title to the ground vested in the public, or any previous 
stipulation with the proprietor for the temporary possession of it. While the 
assembly are considering of a proper satisfaction to the owner for the time past, 
I trust provision will be made to secure a permanent repository for the public 
arms and military stores, at that or some other place most proper for the 
purpose. 

The honourable William Nelson hath resigned his office as a member of tho 
council, as appears by his letter, No. 6. 

The honourable Henry Tazewell, esq., has been appointed a judge of the 



APPENDIX. 303 

general court in the room of the honourable B. Danbridge, esq., deceased, unti' 
the assembly shall signify their pleasure. 

The honourable George Muter, esq., has been appointed a judge of the 
genera!, court in Kentucky, in the room of Cyrus Grijffin, esq., who resigned 
his appointment. 

Thomas Massie, esq., having resigned his appointment for opening a road 
on the northwestern frontier, Joseph Neville, esq., has been appointed in his 
room. 

The report of the conmiissioners for disposing of the Gosport lands. No. 9, 
will explain to the assembly their transactions in that business. 

Mr. Rene Rapicault, of New Orleans, exhibited an account against this 
commonwealth for a considerable sum of money which appears to be due to 
him. But as it will be found by reference to his papers, No. 10, that this 
debt, however just, cannot be paid from any fund now existing, it is submitted 
to the legislature to make such provision for its payment, as to them shall 
seem proper. 

The report of the commissioners for extending the boundary line between 
Virginia and Pennsylvania, No. 11, will explain the manner in which that 
busmess has been executed. 

By Mr. Jefferson's letters it appears, that the original sum granted to pro- 
cure a statue of General Washington will be deficient. The further sum 
wanting, together with the reasons for increasing the expense of the work^ 
will appear by Mr. Jefferson's correspondence. No. 12. 

The crews of the boats Liberty and Patriot were ordered to be enlisted for 
twelve months from August last, unless sooner discharged. This was done in 
order that the assembly might, if they judged proper, determine to discontinue 
them, or if they are retained, make suitable provision for their support : hith- 
erto, that has been defrayed out of the contingent fund. But the great variety 
of expenses charged on that fund, make it necessary, in future, to provide some 
other mode of support for them. The assembly will, no doubt, observe in the 
course of their deliberations on the subject of revenue, that it is necessary for 
the executive to commission the officers. The officer commanding one of these 
boats has detected several persons attempting to evade the payment of duty, 
and in compliance with the law, as he supposes, took bonds for the payments 
of the penalties imposed for making false entries. But it seems there are great 
difficulties in recovering judgment on these bonds, owing to ambiguity in the 
law respecting the subject. The assembly will apply such remedy for this 
evil as they think proper. 

Application hath been made to the executive, on the subject of paying into 
the continental treasury, warrants for interest due on loan-office certificates, 
and other liquidated claims against the continent. And although there can be 
no doubt that payments made by the treasurer to the continental receiver, may 
include the proportion of warrants specified by congress in their acts of the 
twenty-eighth of April, seventeen hundred and eighty-four, yet the receiver, 
when possessed of the cash, although it was unaccompanied by any warrants, 
does not conceive himself justified in parting with any money in exchange for 
them. So that until the assembly shall interpose, by making these warrants 
receivable at the treasury, our citizens will suffer great injury, and be deprived 
of a facility enjoyed by the citizens of the other states. 

The sum of money allowed by the assembly in their resolution of the thir- 
teenth of June, seventeen hundred and eighty-three, for compiling, printing, 
and binding the laws, has proved inadequate to the purpose ; five hundred 
pounds having been expended in the printing, and two hundred and fifty en- 
gaged to be divided among the gentlemen who made the compilation ; so that 
nothing is left to pay for the binding. 

I cannot forbear informing the assembly, that many county courts have failed 



304 APPENDIX. 

to recommend sheriffs in the months of June and July. In consequence of this, 
many of the counties will be withoiit sheriffs, inasmuch as the executive think 
they have no power to issue commissions in such cases. As this evil threaten* 
so many parts of the state with anarchy, I have no doubt of the legislate* 
remedying it with all possible despatch. 

I have the honour to be, with great regard, 

Your most obedient, humble servant, 

P. HENRY. 
The Honourable the Speaker of the House of Delegates. 



NOTE C. 

Judge Tucker, in his edition of Blackstone, having fallen into Mr. Ran- 
dolph's mistake, in regard to the case of Josiah Philips, the following note has 
been furnished to the author by the gentleman who was the chairman of the 
committee : — 

" The case of Josiah Philips, I find strangely represented by Judge Tucker 
and Mr. Edmund Randolph, and very negligently vindicated by Mr. Henry. 
That case is personally known to me, because I was of the legislature at the 
time, was one of those consulted by Mr. Henry, and had my share in the pas- 
sage of the bill. I never before saw the observation of those gentlemen, which 
you quote on this case, and will now, therefore, briefly make some strictures 
on them. 

" Judge Tucker, instead of a definition of the functions of bills of attainder, 
has given a just diatribe against their abuse. The occasion and proper office 
of a bill of attainder is this ; when a person charged with a crime withdraws 
from justice, or resists it by force, either in his own or a foreign country, no 
other means of bringing him to trial or punishment being practicable, a special 
act is passed by the legislature, adapted to the particular case ; this prescribes 
to him a sufficient term to appear and submit to a trial by his peers, declares 
that his refusal to appear shall be taken as a confession of guilt, as in the ordi- 
nary case of an offender at the bar refusing to plead, and pronounces the sen- 
tence which would have been rendered on his confession or conviction in a 
court of law. No doubt that these acts of attainder have been abused in Eng- 
land as instruments of vengeance by a successful over a defeated party, but 
what institution is insusceptible of abuse, in wicked hands P 

" Again, the judge says, ' the court refused to pass sentence of execution 
pursuant to the directions of the act.' The court could not refuse this, because 
it was never proposed to them, and my authority for this assertion shall be pre- 
sently given. 

" For the perversion of a fact so intimately known to himself, Mr. Randolph 
can be excused only by our indulgence for orators who, pressed by a powerful 
adversary, lose sight, in the ardour of conflict, of the rigorous accuracies of 
fact, and permit their imagination to distort and colour them to the views of the 
moment. He was attorney-general at the time, and told me himself, the first 
time 1 saw him after the trial of Philips, that when taken and delivered up to 
justice, he had thought it best to make no use of the act of attainder, and to 
take no measure under it; and that he had indicted him, at the common law, 
either for murder or robbery, (I forget which, and whether for both,) that he 
was tried on this indictment in the ordinary way, found guilty by the jury, sen- 
tenced and executed under the common law ; a course which every one ap- 
proved, because the first object of the act of attainder was, to bring him to a fair 
trial. Whether Mr. Randolph was right in this information to me, or, when in 
the debate with Mr. Henry, he represents this atrocious offender as sentenced 
and executed under the act of attainder, let the record of the case decide. 



APPENDIX. 305 

*« * Without being confronted with his accusers and witnesses, without the 
privilege of caliing for evidence in his behalf, he was sentenced to death, and 
afterward actually executed.' I appeal to the universe to produce one single 
Instance from the first establishment of government in this state to the present 
day, where, in a trial at bar, a criminal has been refused confrontation with his 
accusers and witnesses, or denied the privilege of calling for evidence in his 
behalf. Had it been done in this case, I would have asked of the attorney- 
general, why he proposed or permitted it ? But, without having seen the re- 
cord, I will venture, on the character of our courts, to deny that it was done. 
But if Mr. Randolph meant, only, that Philips had not these advantages, on the 
passage of the bill of attainder, how idle to charge the legislature with omitting 
to confront the culprit with his witnesses, when he was standing out in arms, 
and in defiance of their authority ; and their sentence was to take effect, only 
on his own refusal to come in and be confronted. We must either, therefore, 
consider this as a mere hyperbolism of imagination, in the heat of debate, or, 
what I should rather believe, a defective statement by the reporter of Mr. Ran- 
dolph's argument. I suspect this last the rather, because this point in the 
charge of Mr. Randolph is equally omitted in the defence of Mr. Henry. This 
gentleman must have known that Philips was tried and executed under the 
common law, and yet, according to this report, be rests his defence on a justifica- 
tion of the attainder only. But all who knew Mr. Henry, know, that when at 
ease in argument, he was sometimes careless, not giving himself the trouble of 
ransacking either his memory or imagination for all the topics of his subject, or 
his audience that of hearing them. No man on earth knew better when he had 
said enough for his hearers. 

" Mr. Randolph charges us with having read the bill three times in the same 
day. I do not remember the fact, nor whether this was enforced on us by the 
urgency of the ravages of Philips, or of the time at which the bill was intro- 
duced. I have some idea it was at or near the close of the session. The jour- 
nals, which I have not, will ascertain this fact." 

The following proceedings against Josiah Philips and his associates, are 
extracted from the records of the general court ; and are followed by the notice 
of the execution of these men, from the public prints of the day : which, it is 
hoped, will put a final end to this mistake, so little to the honour of our revo- 
lution. 

" Virginia, to wit : — 

" The jurors for the commonwealth, upon their oath present : That Josiah 
Philips, late of the parish of Lynhaven, in the county of Princess Ann, labourer, 
on the ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred 
and seventy-eight, with force and arras, at the parish aforesaid, in the county 
aforesaid, in the highway of the commonwealth there, in and upon one James 
Hargrove, in the peace of God and of the commonwealth, then and there being, 
feloniously did make an assault, and him, the said James Hargrove, in bodily 
fear and danger of his life, in the highway aforesaid, then and there feloniously 
did put, and twenty-eight men's felt hats of the value of twenty shillings each, 
and five pounds of twine of the value of five shillings each pound, of the goods 
and chattels of the same James Hargrove, from the person and against the will 
of the said James Hargrove, in the highway aforesaid, then and there feloniously 
and violently did steal, take and carry away, against the peace and dignity of 
the commonwealth, 

" Witness. — James Hargrove, Benjamin Griffin, William Lovett, Polly Davis, 
Horatio Davis, and John Matthias. Sworn in court, Oct. 20th, 1778. 

John Mav." 

The above endictment is thus endorsed : — 

« An endictment against Josiah Philips for robbery," (in Mr. Randolph*? 
hand-writing.) " A true bill. Wm. Holt, foremaA." ,.> 

26* ^ 



306 APPENDIX. 

« Virginia, 

«' In the General C8urt, 20th October, 1778. 

** Josiah Philips, late of the parish of Lynhaven, in the county of Princess 
Ann, labourer, who stands endicted for robbery, was led to the bar in custody 
of the keeper of the public jail, and was thereof arraigned, and pleaded not 
guilty to the endictment, and for his trial put himself upon God and his coun- 
try. Whereupon came a jury, to wit : James Letate, Thomas Stanley, Gilliam 
Booth, Stapleton Crutchfield, John Tankerley, John Draper, Leonard Henley, 
Micajah Chiles, Richard Swepson, William James Lewis, Thomas Cowles, 
and Ambrose Raines, who, being elected, tried and sworn the truth of, and 
upon premises to speak, and having heard the evidence, upon their oath to say, 
that the said Josiah Philips is guilty of the robbery aforesaid in manner and form 
as in the endictment against him is alleged, and that he had neither lands nor 
tenements, goods nor chattels at the time of committing the said robbery, nor at 
any time since, to their knowledge ; and thereupon he is remanded to jail. 

« October the 27th, 1778. 
" Josiah Philips, late of the parish of Lynhaven, in the county of Princess 
Ann, labourer, who stands convicted of robbery, was again led to the bar in 
custody of the keeper of the public jail, and thereupon it being demanded of 
him if any thing he had or knew to say for himself, why the court, here, to 
judgment and execution of and upon the premises, should not proceed, he said 
he had nothing but what he had before said. Therefore, it is considered by the 
court, that he be hanged by the neck until he be dead. 

« October 28, 1778. 
" John Lowry, John Reizen, and Charles Bowman, for murder, Josiah Philips, 
James Hodges, Henry M'Lalen, and Robert Hodges, for robbery, James Ran- 
dolph for horse-stealing, Joseph Turner, otherwise called Josiah Blankenship, 
for Burglary, and John Highwarden, for grand larceny, being under sentence of 
death by the judgment of the court yesterday passed against them for their said 
oiience : It is awarded that execution of the said sentence be severally made 
and done upon them the said John Lowry, John Reizen, Charles Bowman, Jo- 
siah Philips, James Hodges, Henry M'Lalen, Robert Hodges, James Randolph, 
Joseph Turner, otherwise called Josiah Blankenship, aud John Highwarden, by 
the sheriff of York county, on Friday the fourth day of December next, be- 
tween the hours of ten and twelve in the forenoon, at the usual place of execu- 
tioa. 

"Copies — Teste, 

« Pevton Drew, C. G. C." 

Extract from Dixon and Hunter's paper of October 30th, 1778. 
" WiLLiAMSBURGH — At a general court, begun and held at the capitol the 
1 0th instant, the following crimhials were condemned to suffer death : Charles 
Bowman, from Prince George, for murder ; John Lowry, from Bedford, for 
ditto ; Josiah Philips, James Hodges, Robert Hodges, and Henry M^Lalen, from 
Princess Ann, for robbery : John Highwarden, from Fauquier, for grand larceny ; 
Joseph Turner, alias Josiah Blankenship, from Albemarle, for burglary ; and 
James Randolph, from Culpeper, for horse-stealing." 

Extract from Dixon and Hunter's paper of December 4, 1778. 
" WiLHAMSBURGH — This day were executed, at the gallows near this city, 
pursuant to their sentence, the following criminals, viz. : Josiah Philips, Henry 
M'Lalen, Robert Hodges, John Reizen and Josiah Blankenship." 










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